Full Hunter
by LetTheChaosEnsue
Summary: When two hero's, with completely different stories and backgrounds, run into each other. They make a surprising discovery. Jim is slowly becoming more OK with being a troll, and Max is just glad to have his dad back after defeating Makano. Post season 3 Trollhunters/ Post season 4 MaxSteel
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Maxwell Mcgrath loved being a superhero, fighting bad guys and saving the world! Alongside with Steel, who he not only needed to live (and not blow up), but who was his best friend. It had been over a month since he and his father had defeated the alien warlord, Makino.

And that was another thing, His dad, who was an alien _which made him a half alien_. Long thought dead, Max and Steel found that Makino was using his father as an energy generator, using his father's natural release of energy to power his planet absorbing death ship. They used that very energy, to destroy Makino. Stopping a full scale alien invasion and saving planet earth.

Max loved having his father in his life, he grew up without him. But having him back was amazing, and filled a hole long thought to never be filled again.

Something Max didn't love, was how late most of the Copper Canyon Criminals stayed up. After he had finished taking care of two bozos in stupid hawaiian shirts, and a half a dozen other crimes. He and Steel set back to the newly rebuilt N-tec base. Neither of them were quite awake. Something Max was grateful for, autopilot.

In his Turbo flight mode, they headed silently back to base under a full moon. His blue jets buzzed quietly in the still night. Max drowsily appreciated the stars as they flew under the canopy of night. He was grateful that he was still alive to see them.

Without warning, Max and Steel crashed into something midair, pulling them both from their sleepy state.

"Max! What was that?" Steels robotic voice shouted, and the front of Max's suit lit up as he spoke.

Before he could answer, he heard a scream and a dark raspy voice that yelled "CLAIRE!" There was a burst of bright blue light as something hit the ground with enough force to register on a richter scale.

* * *

Jim loved it when he and Claire were able to get time away from the trolls, especially when it didn't involve the glamor mask. They were running and jumping from the plateaus and mesas on the outskirts of a city called Copper Canyon. It was rightfully named too. He could smell the copper within the rocks he ran on.

Claire was holding tight to his back, her arms wrapped around his underarms, and her chin resting on his shoulder as her cheek brushed his ear. Jim's tail was wrapped around her tightly for extra security.

It was early in the night. As they ran, Jim and Claire marveled at how bright the stars and full moon were and the stunning beauty of the mountain desert landscape under the clear sky… and Jim even more so than Claire. He could see every detail of the cliffs and their bright orange color was intensified by his enhanced eyesight.

Claire's heart beat excitedly in her chest as they ran and jumped from cliff edge to cliff edge. His mind wandered back to an earlier conversation.

"You and I need to get away from the trolls more." She had said.

"Babe, I am a troll." Jim replied.

"Yes, but you're _my_ troll. And the last time you and I went on a date, we got stuck at S.T.A.R. labs, and you ended up fighting alongside the Flash. And as much as I love human company, I want to spend some time with _just_ you."

Claire had managed to convince Jim that gallivanting around in the desert at night would make them both feel better. Of course she was right, she always was.

Jim was thoroughly enjoying himself, but when right after he'd jumped across a particularly large gap, he heard a small buzz. His ears twitched against Claire's cheek.

She was about to ask if something was wrong when out of nowhere, something glowing a faint blue rammed into them, midair, over a canyon. Claire lost her grip and screamed.

Jim let out a whine as he quickly regained his bearings midair. "CLAIRE!" he screamed. Angling his body toward hers he was able to grab her arm with his long tail that spanned at least half his body. He pulled her to his chest and watched as the ground quickly approached, making sure he'd time it right he craned his neck to see the stone floor of the canyon then said, "For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!"

The armor enveloped him right as he and Claire hit the ground, softening the landing significantly. Had he been human, he would have been dead. And had he not of softened the blow with the protection of the armor, Claire would have died on him.

He let the armor dismiss itself as the dust around him settled

Everything ached, his horns were digging into the ground and he felt as though his back was broke. Claire lay curled up on his chest whimpering, tears rolling down her face, his tail was securely around her, he gave her a gentle squeeze to let her know he was fine. Jim stared up at the stars for a moment in pain then was brought back as he saw a flash of blue come down several yards away from him. The same blue that had knocked him and Claire out of the sky and almost killed her!

As carefully as he could, he moved Claire off his chest onto the ground beside him, his human instincts lost the battle to his trollish instincts pitifully. Right now, he wanted to shred the thing that hurt her, tear it into a million pieces. He turned and snarled violently at the thing, it looked like a person, with some sort of helmet and body armor to match. White, blue and black, markings glowed under the moonlight, he could hear the person's heartbeat, it was rappid.

Jim's snarl grew to a full on blood curdling roar, it's heartbeat increased. On all fours, Jim ran at the humanoid, growling and baring his teeth as he pounced.

* * *

"What was that?!" Steel yelled from his position on Max's chest.

"I don't know, but it was definitely alive. Scan for life signs." Max said. He piloted down and landed away from where the thing had landed in the shadows, so he couldn't see it, or them, or whatever it was.

"Steel, what are you picking up?"

"I don't believe this." Steel's voice rang in Max's head.

"What? What is it Steel? They're not dead are they?" He whispered. He watched as he vaguely saw two figures lying on the ground in front of him.

"No, but one of them is giving off a Turbo energy signal." he yelled.

"What? That's not possible. Or at least, I don't think it is."

"Weather it's possible or not, it's there. Do you think that's how they survived that fall?"

Max watched as one of the figures moved, it set the smaller figure off to the side. Then the other turned back to look at him, he heard an inhuman sound come from the individual. It's eyes were glowing. And not just reflecting the moonlight, but actually glowing. The large blue eyes held fury beyond comprehension, then suddenly. It let out a deafening, nightmare inducing roar.

It began to run at him and Steel, on all fours. Like some kind of animal, growling with large teeth baring. As It came out of the shadows and into the moonlight, Max saw something his eyes couldn't believe.

A humanoid figure, with deep blue skin, a pair of horns, and large teeth. A tail swinging behind it all the while it was running at him.

Running at him…

He pulled himself out of his thoughts just in time to doge the creature's jumping attack.

"Steel, what is this thing?" Max shouted.

"I have no clue. But it's the one giving off the slight Turbo energy signature." He said, the voice only heard by Max.

The creature lunged again, swinging fists and… is it wearing a hoodie. Max stood still long enough gaping at the creature, that it was able to ram him in the stomach sending him flying backwards.

"Max, might I suggest not standing and staring at the thing trying to _kill us_!?"

"Oh right… Go turbo, strength!" Max shouted. Turbo energy flowed around him and the steel suit expanded giving him a larger than life body.

"Now we're talkin'!" Steel yelled.

The creature was a few feet away, and stood straight. Max was surprised at its height. Normally, strength mode dwarfed almost everyone. But this creature was only a few heads shorter. The creature moved to a more defensive position, it's tail whipping around behind it, and It's eyes were dilated in a way that reminded Max of a cat.

He ran at the creature with the full force of the steel suit, and threw a strong right punch directly at the creature. Max didn't expect it to completely stop the punch, his fist was held firmly in the beasts hands.

It grinned wickedly at him and snarled, then in another moment Max was being thrown the length of a football field, until he smashed into the side of a cliff.

The creature snarled again and turned away, bounding off on all fours back to it's companion.

"What just happened Steel?" Max said, not moving because it caused him pain.

"We just got our sorry excuse for hero buttes handed to us on a silver platter."

"Why'd it attack us?"

"Probably because we knocked it out of the sky. It probably felt threatened."

"Should we go talk to it?"

"Hmm, my initial scans did indicate that it is indeed an intelligent being. However, might I suggest putting away the muscle?"

"Right." Max got up and dusted his significantly smaller form off. "Now let's see if this thing can talk." He began his walk back to where the creature was with the other figure. He was wary of what that one might look like, if the first was like… that.

* * *

Jim got back to Claire as quickly as he could, as soon as his violent instincts were satisfied with themselves, he made his retreat. He could smell blood, Claire's blood.

Claire lay in the dirt, her eyes were shut tight and tears were rolling down her face as she clutched her arm, Jim saw her forearm had completely broken through the skin. And jutted up at an unnatural angle. He berated himself silently for leaving her to satisfy his instincts. Then knelt at her side, he licked some tears off of her face before he spoke.

"Claire, baby, how you holding up?" He said quietly and bit back a snarl of anger for being knocked out of the sky.

She opened her eyes to reveal purple iris'. Jim surmised the only way she wasn't screaming was because she was using her magic to dull the pain. "Hurts." She stuttered. "How bad, is't?"

"It's a compound fracture, but it's clean break, so it's gonna heal good…" Jim licked her cheek again, his tail wrapped around one of her legs.

"What 'els?" she spoke, her words slurred. Claire winced and shut her eyes tight again.

"I'm going to have to set it… It's going to hurt, a lot."

She only nodded. Jim took off his black hoodie and put the sleeve in Claire's mouth to bite on as he set the bone back into place.

Jim took her arm as carefully as he could from her other, and she cried out in silent sobs. "One…" he spoke quietly. "Two…" Claire's eyes tightened more and Jim's heart hurt for her. "Three!" As he said it he set the bone back into place with a stomach retching sound. She screamed in agony as tear rolled down her cheeks with fury. She breathed heavily, she felt her arm was back in place, which relieved some of the pain. She spit out the sleeve and opened her brown eyes.

"Thanks, Jim." she stared up at him, her eyes glossy from salty tears of pain. His tail brushed her cheek as to wipe some of the wetness away. Then before he could speak, a green light exploded against his chest, sending him flying away from her. She reached out with her good arm, screaming. "JIM!" but her pain held her back.

She tried to get up, to get to Jim, but this only ended with painful falls and mouths full of dirt. Jim lay there motionless. "Jim," she whimpered.

Claire looked around to see what had shot him. She saw white and green aircrafts, and people in strange uniforms that matched colors with the ships. Most had helmets on, but one man in particular caught her eye. He had a strong build, and gray hair, with bits of white showing up, and an prosthetic arm that reminded her of Draal's. What this man said next made her extremely mad.

"We got 'em! Contain it and take it back to base." His voice was commanding and sure.

"Uncle Ferrus! What are you doing?" the man Jim had previously attacked yelled furiously.

"That thing attacked you and Steel, and I don't know what it was doing to this poor girl. But I could hear her screaming from the jump-jet a mile away."

She turned back to Jim to see masked officers aim something at Jim, then he was encased in a green field that lifted him off the ground, but his body was still. Some more masked people came to her and helped her up, she batted them away with her good arm and glared. Claire picked up Jim's jacket, using her magic to strengthen her. "Get away from me!" she yelled at one of the soldiers.

She looked at the two figures, and watched as something came -off of? Out of?- the masked ones chest in a flash of blue and spoke.

"Uncle Ferrus, it only attacked me because I accidentally knocked it out of the sky." Max said.

"And Forge, did you even read your sensors?" the small hovering creature yelled.

"No, and I don't care, and I don't need to. That thing took you down without even trying. It's dangerous and needs to be contained!" He got in the others face, pointing to where Jim was being loaded. Claire was too weak and in pain to do anything about it, but she walked up to the two individuals and the small flying robot thing and spoke making them all jump.

"That _THING,_" she spat the word. "Is Jim, and your right, he is dangerous. And he's going to be a lot more dangerous when he wakes up and finds that I'm not with him. So I suggest," Claire struggled to keep her eyes brown and not accidentally show her magic. "That, you either let him go or take me with you, or I'll turn one of those fancy green airplanes of yours, to scrap." Her face was set in a dark scowl, and she wished for a moment that she could snarl like Jim.

The man with his face showing, had his eyes blown wide, he probably didn't get told off often. The robot kinda just hovered, with an exclamation mark on his face. And the masked man, she couldn't tell.

The older man steeled his face then spoke, "I'm commander Forge Ferrus, This is Max," he gestured to the masked one, "and Steel." he pointed to the floating robot. He looked back to Claire.

In a 'no nonsense' tone, she replied. "I'm Claire, now let him go."

"I can't do that," the commander said.

Claire scoffed. "I suppose you've never seen a feral animal locked up knowing it's mate was injured then? No?" She shook her head and sighed, then yelled. "I'm serious. If Jim wakes up and I'm not there, I just hope none of your men are bleeding out by the time he finds me." She stood clutching her arm covered by Jim's jacket, which was soaking up the large amounts of blood her arm was letting out.

"Stepping away from dark and creepy," Max said. "Uncle Ferrus, Steel picked something up on his scans. You really need to hear him out."

"Yeah, I scanned this, Jim. And he was giving off…" Steel started but was cut off.

"Negative, there are civilians present, and with that thing posing a threat to copper canyon, I will not be hearing any bone headed ideas from the two of you! Now somebody take her home." Forge yelled, he turned and started walking away.

Claire's anger in that moment out weighed the pain and exhaustion. Her eyes turned purple and she magically pulled the Commander back to face her, forcing him down to her eye level. "I told you. I'm going with you, or Jim is staying here. And if you call him a _thing_ one more time, you can kiss your precious arm goodbye." Claire dropped her magic, in turn dropping Forge on his face. "Now what will it be?" Her face spelled danger and the glow from her eyes intensified her nightmarish glare.

Max and Steel stared at her, she couldn't really tell what they were thinking though.

"Forge?" Steel spoke up.

The man got up and dusted himself off. "Fine! But I want you two to keep a close eye on her." He walked off and got into one of the… what did he call it, the jump-jet. And took off, the others following, and taking Jim with them. Leaving her alone with Max and Steel.

"Ok, how did you do that? Forge never changes his mind about anything! That was amazing!" Steel asked.

Claire's face was hard, and she pressed the jacket against her bleeding arm. "Why did you knock us down? You almost killed me." she snapped her head in Max's direction.

He visibly tensed, and glanced at Steel as if for help. Who, in response, began a simulated whistle of innocence.

"Uh, I was practically asleep. It was a long day and… wasn't really paying attention. I'm really Sorry. I wouldn't never do anything to endanger someone on purpose." Max said.

Claire's face softened. "Well, at least I know you weren't trying to kill us on purpose. Now seriously, I need to be with Jim when he wakes up."

"We're going to do a quick flight back. It's not far…" Max said.

Steel's voice rang in his head, "Max, my scans are showing that something is wrong with her arm. Ask her if she's alright."

"Is your arm alright?" Max asked, quickly glancing down at it and noticing how she was holding it.

"No, the radius has a compound fracture, Jim set it, but I can't do anything with it now."

"Well miss Claire," the robot spoke, "We have good doctors back at base and could get that casted very nicely for you."

"That sounds great, if you could try not to jar my arm though." Claire said.

"I'll do my best," Max said. Then he stepped back and did something truly cliche.

"Go turbo, Flight!" he yelled and Steel went back and planted himself on his chest. A minute later he was in a few inches off the ground in an entirely different suit.

"You ready?" he asked as he picked her up. One arm behind her shoulders and one behind her knees. She winced as he picked her up, but nodded in response to his question. Than a minute later, they were landing inside of one of the large rock formations.

* * *

Max took Claire over to the medical room and he was left once again with. "I'm not kidding Max, you need to take me to Jim." it left him feeling on edge and panicked. He made his way into the briefing room, removing his helmet as he entered, his spirits lifted at the sight of his dad, at the center table with Forge. Completely involved in a small device he was working on.

"Hey dad," Max said.

"Hey son." he said not looking up as he tightened a screw on the device

"Alright, now can we finally tell you what we scanned off of him?" Steel spoke.

"Fine, tell me what you scanned." Forge said, acting as though he didn't even care.

"Tachyon Unlimited Radiant Bio-Optimized Energy…" Steel said, Forge's jaw dropped to the floor before quickly shutting again. His dad looked up from the machine that was so important moments before.

"That's not possible!" Forge gasped.

"Nothing is impossible, Forge. Just, very, _very_, _**very, **__**very**_ unlikely. Are you sure that's what it was Steel?" Max's dad said.

Steel nodded, "Positive, in fact, I checked it three times." he held up one of his _hands_.

"Jim, check, he's in prison block Alpha 2." Forge said.

Max's father, Jim, typed quickly and pulled up a page that showed the types of energies in the cell.

"Mother of Mars!" Ferrus ran his real hand through his graying hair while looking at the screen in front of him.

"Good eye Steel, it's faint but it's there. It's almost like when you use all of your turbo energy reserves, Max."

"Max, where did you leave that girl? Claire?" Commander Ferrus asked.

"We took her to the medical ward, she had a compound fracture in her arm." Steel said.

"She had a compound fracture and she was still standing?" Forge yelled.

"Steely girl…" Jim muttered under his breath, returning to the device.

"You should have seen her take down Uncle Ferrus, she didn't even move a muscle!" Max said.

Forge buried his head in his hand, then spoke. "Both of these individuals are dangerous. Max, Steel, I want you to stay with her until this gets sorted out. Don't let her out of your sight!"

"Alright, and if she asks to be with him?" Steel said.

"No! Under no circumstances are those two to be together!"

"You heard what she said, do you really think that's the best Idea?" Max asked.

"You have your orders." He said, ending the conversation.

* * *

Max and Steel walked out of the room, Steel replaced his helmet and they walked to the medical ward. She was sitting in one of the chairs, just sitting there content. With a broken arm.

"Uh, hey Claire." Max said as he walked in.

"So I'm curious, how was it you were able to drag Forge back after he had walked away, _without_ moving _at all_? No one stands up to Forge Ferrus." Steel said.

"I'm not inclined to answer any of your questions until I'm in the same room with Jim." She said, staring at Steel, her posture in the chair was slouched and she held her broken arm in the other.

"Uh, sorry. Forge forbade it." Max said.

Claire had an angry look on her face for a brief moment, then it turned to a small evil grin. "Alright, Fine" she said. "I'll just wait here. He's in a prison cell I assume? And with high tech gear… I'm thinking it's gotta be force-fields. I hope the things in his path from there to here aren't too expensive. Maybe the guards are smarter than your uncle and will actually get out of the way, so you know. He doesn't shred them to pieces." Her small grin grew into a wicked smile. "Oh also, you don't have any doctors in here." She stated matter-of-factly.

* * *

Jim woke on the floor with blurry eyes, but quickly got to his feet. He'd expected he was going to wake up in the middle of the Copper Canyon desert, but this was far from it. He was in a square room, small, with blindingly bright lights. There were three walls and one _energy wall?_

Quickly noticing something was missing, he did a full 360 looking for Claire. Then he yelled, "Claire!" He lifted his nose, testing the air. She was somewhere in the building, but not close.

His heart rate increased and he felt his ears twitching. His tail snaked around behind him wildly.

He looked at the seemingly invisible wall, and tested it with the tip of his tail. A small zap ran through his body and he snarled. Getting angrier by the second.

Claire wasn't with him, she was with strangers. And she was hurt, Jim tested the air again. She was _with_ the people who hurt her. Jim's eyes dialated to barely visible slits.

Wordlessly he summoned the Eclipse armor and dug the tip of his sword into the small riser producing the electrifying field that divided him and Claire. Then he drug it along the base watching as wires and circuits broke creating small electric pops. Alarms sounded throughout the building, Jim had to flatten his ears against his head to block them out.

He heard the silent buzz of the force field failing and stepped out. Guards came rushing at him, he shithed Eclipse and charged at his assailents on all fours. He growled and snarled wildly. He rammed his head into the first, knocking one over behind him. Then as another came at him with some sort of gun, he did a butterfly kick and knocked them out cold. He ran out of the hallway to find a room full of alarms and red lights flashing at him. He ripped the door out of the frame and threw it behind him. On the other side were a barrage of soldiers with more guns aimed for him.

He lowered to all fours and backed up slowly to get a running start, then charged. small green bursts of light came at him. The ones that hit his armor did nothing, the ones that landed on his face only stung a bit. He rammed into the first row then jumped the rest entirely, landing skillfully on the other side of the wall of people meant to keep him in.

He turned and ran on two legs down the hallway, sniffing the air to find Claire. He wished the alarms would shut off because it would be easier to find her if he could hear her. He picked up her scent, and one other. The one who he had fought back in the desert… he jumped into a four legged run and followed her scent.

He ran through some hallways, knocking out anyone who saw him. He exited the hallways and found himself in a large hollowed out mountain, with aircraft and tanks. As he ran, one of the tanks fired, and managed to hit him.

Jim let out a deafening blood curdling roar of pain. Than as the tank began to prepare for another shot, he unsheathed Eclipse and sliced it in half, just like he had done with the flying truck. He let Eclipse go into thin air as he ran into another set of hallways, Claire's scent was getting stronger.

He turned the corner and faced an older man with a robotic arm, holding a large shoulder cannon, grinning. Jim stopped in his tracks and stood hunched, eyes focused. The fur on the back of his neck raised. In one swift movement, he summoned his sword and sliced the barrel of the gun off, and kept running.

He finally found the room Claire's scent was coming from, and she was in there with the person from the desert, he snarled and kicked the door open. He bounded into the room, glancing around. It was large, and clean, mostly empty. The far wall was lined with hightech cupboards, he spotted some standard medical tools on the counter. The rest of the room only had a few chairs strewn around randomly, Jim noticed that at some point the alarms had shut off.

Then he spotted Claire, sitting calmly in a chair. Her eyes lit up when his met hers. He smiled, but the new and familiar scent kept him from going to meet her. He turned to see the strangely suited man and a flying robot. He lowered himself to attack when Claire stopped him.

"Babe, this is Max, and Steel. Please don't maim them." She smiled, and said it as if she were asking him to pass the salt. Jim relaxed slightly standing tall, his ears slightly perked up. He turned back to Claire who had a slightly evil smile, and was cradling her bloodied broken arm.

Jim snarled at them, with an equally evil glare. "Hi, I'm Jim."

He turned and walked to Claire, and nuzzled her head and cheek, she nuzzled him back. Receiving weird looks from the other two in the room. A glare quickly shut them down.

"You ok Claire?" he said in a soft and kind tone.

She nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. These people seem to think your dangerous. For some reason." She rolled her eyes and smiled at him, he laughed.

"Oh, is that why they knocked us out of the sky directly over a canyon then shot me and kidnapped you?" He growled, laughing angrily.

The robot began to object but Claire immediately cut him off.

"Just some misunderstandings, Jim. I'm fairly sure they aren't actively seeking to destroy us." She said. Jim only gave a low growl.

"No, I'm pretty sure my uncle is planning to kill you after all of the damage you did to the new N-tech base." Max said.

"But do not worry. Most of his anger is just because he got told by a teenage girl!" Steel laughed.

"If you ask me, he destroyed his own base. I told you guys like six times." Claire said. "But he had to insist on keeping me away from Jim for some reason."

"He's just stubborn like that." Max shrugged, then turned to Jim. "So, uh, what are you?" he asked tentatively, with a grimace on his face.

Jim's head whipped around to look at him. He glared for a moment. He dismissed his armor, Max tilted his head, unsure. Placing the amulet back in his pocket, he crouched down next to Claire. They both knew they couldn't escape without hurting Claire's arm further, or until it was in a cast. He would just have to wait.

"Well?" Steel asked.

"I don't feel like sharing with the person who broke my mate's arm." Jim growled, his pupils thinned for a moment. His tail wrapped around Claire's ankle. She smiled at all his actions.

"I'm sorry your what?" Max spat.

"My. Mate." Jim growled his words. "You broke her arm, and what's worse you could have killed her. So I don't feel inclined to share _any_ of my information with you."

"Also, we don't really trust people whose face we can't see." Claire said in an equally menacing tone.

"Ever heard of a secret identity?" Max said.

"You know Max, they actually have a point." Steel chimed.

"Shut it bucket head." Max snapped back.

Steel rolled his eyes and sent a blast of energy at Max's foot. Max jumped, "Ouch! What was that for?"

Steel sighed and folded his arms, "I apologize for my less intelligent counterpart. And if you promise to keep his/our secret, I will gladly remove the helmet."

"Trust me, we can keep secrets." Claire smiled with an eye roll. Jim squeezed her ankle with his tail, and gave a silent scoff.

"Fantastic!" Steel flew at Max and disappeared into his armor. A moment later, with a flash of blue, a young man stood in a blue jacket and genes. He had spiky side-swept brown hair and bright blue eyes. And other than the build, stronger jawline, and hair, he looked slightly like Jim, but only a little.

Max looked up at them sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh my gosh, he looks kinda like you!" Clare shouted to Jim.

Steel looked back and forth between the two boys. "I'm sorry I don't see the resemblance."

"Yeah, I look nothing like… _you_." Max said warily gesturing at Jim.

"She means before I looked like this, about two months ago." Jim said flatly.

"Your build is a bit more square that Jim's was, and your jawline more pronounced. And Jim's hair was, well still is, black. But it's the eyes…" she trailed off.

"Wait back up…" Max said, holding his hands in front of himself. "What do you mean, about two months ago? Did you not always look like a…"

"Monster?" Jim spat the word as if it were poison, and growled. Claire glared at Max, then moved off her chair and sat on Jim's right leg, his tail moved around behind him and took gentle support over Claire's broken arm. Claire whispered to Jim, almost in audible.

'We might want to keep them busy. At least until I get a cast.' Jim nodded, then turned to Max.

"No, Max. I didn't always look like this. I was about three heads shorter and a had a few less appendages. I also wasn't blue… In a word, you could say I _was_ human." Jim looked at the confused pair of boy and robot.

"He's got you beat Max, he was human more human than you!" Steel said.

"Steel." Max whined.

"What?" Steel's face turned to a question mark.

"What does that mean?" Claire asked.

"You see, Max isn't 100% human." Steel explained.

"You look human to me." She said.

"No, he's not." Jim said, sniffing the air, his nose twitched and wrinkled before he spoke. "He smells… off. His scent, it has a metallic smell to it, and he, it almost smells like pure energy."

"Well, that's not weird at all." Max said, feeling a tad self conscious having just been smelled.

"Wow! What do I smell like?" Steel said, flying over.

"About the same. Just no flesh or organs or anything a supposed human would have."

"Cool…" Steel said.

"So, if you're not all human, what are you?" Claire asked.

"I'll tell if you tell." Max said.

"Jim, you good with that?"

"Yeah, It's not like we're going anywhere." he shrugged.

"So, I'm half alien. Or, half Tachyon. My dad is from a different planet, so, yeah, half alien." Max said rubbing the back of his neck.

Jim and Claire stared at him for a moment, then Jim shook his head.

"It's not as bad as this." He gestured to himself. "At least people don't run screaming when they see you. _OR_ capture you and lock you up."

"I guess that would be… problematic." Steel said. Jim raised an eyebrow at him.

"So, I'm half alien. Jim, what are you." Max asked eagerly.

"I'm half troll." Jim said, his nose twitched at the scent of Claire's blood on her arm. His ears twitched as he had to restrain himself from cleaning the wound.

"Half… troll?" Max deadpanned.

"I would say that trolls don't exist, but I don't know what else to call you." Steel said.

Jim rolled his eyes, and was just starting to relax. Max and Steel were alright, but he picked something up from outside in the hallway. Claire took notice of his stillness.

"Jim what is it?" Claire asked.

Jim didn't answer, he swiftly picked Claire up as carefully as he could. Her broken arm secure in his tail. He ran to the other side of the room to the wall with the door. Summoning his armor, he moved his shield to cover Claire, all in seconds. Then an explosion came through the door.

He heard Max calling out "Steel!"

"I'm on it Max." Steel's voice called.

Jim's ears were ringing. And Claire was curled up tightly in his arms, tears of pain ran down her face once again. He smelled fresh blood coming from the break in the skin the bone had left. And all Jim could do was snarl protectively, in the arm he held her his shield blocked her from any potential threats. In his other he held Daylight.

* * *

Max didn't know what had happened. Jim was just sitting still then he grabbed the girl and ran past. Before he could do anything, let alone turn around, the door was blown off its hinges, and an explosion followed. The chairs in the room were thrown all over, and dark ash smudges were left on the ground.

Max and Steel joined, and he was back in the now visible Steelsuit. The blast had singed half the room, but nothing was on fire. He noticed a faint blue glow in the corner of his eye. Then spun around to see Jim, in silver and blue armor. Claire was cradled carefully in his arm, and in the other he held a gigantic sword. The sword seemed to be smoking with blue energy.

In the back of his head he heard Steel's voice. "Max, his Turbo energy readings just jumped!"

"Not our biggest concern right now Steel."

"Right. What's our biggest concern?"

"The explosion, Steel. What caused the explosion?"

"Oh, that. Give me a sec." Steel paused. "Alright, it was a N-tech standard infiltration missile. Not meant to do damage, just disorent."

"What? Why?" Max screamed. Before Steel could answer, a barrage of N-tech agents lead by Forge came stomping into the room, surrounding Jim and Claire.

He watched as Jim put Clare down, she winced when her arm was jared. Jim, lowered himself into a more defensive position, his sword in both hands, and it's tip pointed to Forge. Jim snarled and bared his teeth, making Ferrus jump back a bit. Jim's tail moved swayed aggressively behind him.

"Mother of Mars!" Forge muttered.

"You got lucky the first time, but you're _not_ taking me again!" Jim growled.

The commander's eyes were blown wide upon hearing Jim speak. "That _thing_ can _talk_?" he yelled.

Max and Steel watched Jim flinch at being called a _thing._ And Claire's eyes turned a violent deep purple. And Forge let out a yelp.

They turned to see Forge's fake arm completely crushed, and unattached from his body, smoking on the ground. He looked at the prosthetic then back to Claire a few times.

"I told you not to call him that. Next time, listen to me, or it might be something not as replaceable." She said darkly.

"Alright everyone, let's calm down. There's no need to fight…" Max started.

"Stay out of this Max!" His uncle yelled, then pulled out his energy sword.

"No, uncle Ferrus, you need to stop!" He begged.

Forge ignored him and ran at Jim with his sword. As he sung it he held only the hilt and pommel, the cross guard lay on the ground sparking, without a blade. Jim had quickly disarmed him without even trying. He looked at the piece of tech then threw it aside scowling.

Jim grinned at the man's displeasure with eyebrows furrowed. "That was a sorry excuse for a sword. And you're a sorry excuse for a swordsman." he let out a low growl.

Forge pulled out a small pistol type thing and shot it at Jim. the first tranquilizer dart bounced harmlessly of his neck. Then another off his cheek, one grazed his horn. "What in the world?" He gasped.

"That's a cute toy, now back off." Jim snarled, getting inches from the commander's face. He dwarfed him.

Forge stepped back, and glanced around him, he noticed Claire still standing behind Jim cradling her arm, then grinned.

Max watched his uncle lunge past Jim and grabbed the girl's arm, pulling her in front of himself. She cried out in pain at the sudden movement. Steel flew out of his chest and over to Forge.

"What are you doing!?" Steel cried.

Ferrus ignored him and stared Jim down. Claire held tightly against his armored chest. "Stand down!" He yelled.

* * *

Jim looked around, all the guns were trained on him. The man Steel had called Forge, was holding Claire tightly, and painfully against his chest-plate. She was facing Jim her cheeks covered in tears. But her eyes spelled determination, she subtly nodded at Jim and waited.

Jim sheathed Daylight, and allowed his hunter side to take over. He paced on all fours, his tail whipped around violently, waiting for the right moment to attack. His ears twitched when he heard Claire speak.

"You," she gasped. "Are the stupidest human I have ever met!" she yelled. "I know rocks that are smarter than you." Jim's lips upturned slightly, knowing full well that it was true.

"Uncle Ferrus, are you even seeing what you're doing?" Max yelled but was ignored.

"Tell the creature to stand down." he yelled at Claire.

"Even if I wanted to, I can't." Claire breathed.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Forge yelled again.

"Look, even if _he_ wanted to 'stand down', he couldn't. His instincts aren't something you want to get on the wrong side of. And right now, you're holding me, _his injured mate_, hostage." Claire watched Jim stalk back and forth, then he let his armor fall. His growling and snarls grew louder and more violent, and his eyes dilated into thin slits.

"What just happened?" Max asked.

Claire let a wicked grin grow on her face. "He dismissed his armor, it curbs his… farrell behavior. Makes him less, animalistic." Claire said to no one in particular, then directed her voice to the man holding her hostage with one very strong arm, "He's going to shred you if you don't let me go." she spoke.

"Forge, let Claire go." Steel said.

Ferrus' head twitches to the side for just the briefest of moments. Using his brief distraction, Claire's eyes flashed purple and smoke filled the room.

Jim immediately set off taking out the guards one by one, knocking them out. The smoke was thick enough he couldn't even see. Using his hearing and sense of smell he guided himself toward each guard, and incapacitating them. He decided to leave Max and Steel alone, they weren't the problem, they were (sort of) trying to help.

He sniffed the air and listened for Claire's heartbeat. He ran to her and gave a low whine. Claire picked up on his presence and with a flash of purple visible through the smoke, the thick fogy substance disappeared.

The commander was now faced with Jim, standing at his full height snarling down at him. Forge had to crane his neck to see Jim. When he did, he paled considerably.

Jim grabbed the man's forearm and pulled it away from Claire, using his tail, he pulled her to his side. Then in a deep menacing growl, spoke to the commander.

"Try something like that again and this won't be all that breaks." Jim lowered himself to the commander's eye level and tightened his grip around the man's arm, Forge tried to keep his gaze, but couldn't as he began to grunt in pain. Jim kept tightening until he felt the distinct snap of a bone. Then let his grip go.

Forge collapsed and clutched his arm letting out an unmanly yelp as he fell. Max and Steel just stood (and hovered) shaking their heads at the disheveled man.

"What the hell are you?" The Commander yelled at Jim as he stared down at the pitiful lump on the floor.

"A Hunter." Jim snarled.

* * *

Hello lovelies,

This will not be updated regularly, just a heads up. I don't know very many people in this fandom, let alone in both, so let's see how this goes. This shouldn't interrupt anything else I'm doing. And for those of you reading Speed and Stone, this is the next in the set with more crossovers to come. I'll be utilizing these specific characters of Jim and Claire for this string of crossovers that will include a number of fandoms. you can even request if you would like and I'll see what I can do.

This gem came to me a while back and I didn't know if I should post it or not, but just know that it will be a long runner. I'm not entirely sure if all concepts from this work will be incorporated into the others but if you guys like it then I probably will.

Again, this will not be updated regularly, but, the next episode of Speed and Stone should be out shortly.

I own nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter is also a gift. You still know who you are. Happy Birthday, I hope you have a wonderful Amazing day! You're my favorite reader too!

I don't own Trollhunters. I don't own Maxsteel.

Enjoy my lovelies!

* * *

Chapter 2

* * *

Jim turned to Claire, and lifted her off her feet. He walked them back to the corner of the room, carefully stepping over the unconscious bodies. He sat with his back against the wall and crossed his legs. He placed Claire across his lap, and as gently as he could, took her small broken arm in his large hand.

Her arm was completely bruised black, blue and yellow, blood was still coming slowly from where her bone broke through her skin.

He looked up to see how Forge was handling his broken arm. He saw Max without his helmet and Steel, trying to help him up. The two badgering him 'what the hell were you thinking?' and 'why would you do that? They aren't a treat!'

Jim felt a pang of guilt as he had snapped the man's only arm, but it quickly went away. He turned to Claire and whispered,

"Are you ok if I clean it?" He asked.

Claire nodded. And her brown iris' turned a dark purple, preparing herself for the pain.

Jim set to work cleaning the laceration as quickly as possible, while trying to be gentle. His tongue caressed her skin, and cleaned the blood away. He had to pause a few times to clear his mouth of her blood so he wasn't just spreading it around. Claire winced when he actually got to cleaning the cut and not just around it.

As soon as her arm was clear of blood, Jim set to getting her blood out of his mouth so he could kiss her.

The unconscious soldiers had been cleared out, and taken somewhere else.

He looked at his mate who lay content in his lap, her head against his chest, she smiled up at him and spoke as her eyes returned to their normal warm brown.

"It's feeling better already, thanks Jim." She smiled, and he licked her tear stained cheeks. His ears twitched as he heard boots stomping in his direction. He looked up to see Commander Ferrus with an angry look on his face. Max and Steel followed at a safe distance. Jim looked up at him from the floor, his tail sat still, curled around his legs with only the tuft of fur at the top twitching.

A light growl sounded in Jim's throat as his pupils narrowed. He cocked his head and gave an innocent toothy smile. "Something I can help you with?"

Anger flashed across Forge's face, "Why you little… what kind of a sick twisted creature are you?" he yelled.

Jim steeled his face, "What kind of a sick twisted _human_ are _you_?" Jim snarled back.

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" The commander asked, like he truly didn't know.

In one swift movement, Jim stood and set Claire down beside him. He stood naturally on the balls of his feet, and snarled. "Is that even a serious question? Because I'm not sure if you're just that stupid, or your morals are worse than mine." the more Jim spoke, the more his teeth clenched and barred.

The commander stared at Jim, not breaking his gaze.

"You shoot me and capture me without reason. Than, you deliberately kept me away from Claire. You tried to blow us up. Then you restrained my mate and used her as a hostage. And you ask me, what kind of 'sick twisted creature' _I _am?" Jim growled.

Forge yelled back with more ferocity. "I have my reasons!"

"WHAT?!" Jim roared, "What are they? Because from my point of view, you didn't like that there was someone who was able to beat Max, so you locked me up. You were warned that if Claire wasn't there when I woke up bad things would happen, but you kept her away. And what reason would you have, for blowing up a room with your nephew in it, then using my mate. My _injured_ mate, to try and get me to back down. Which was the stupidest thing you've done all night." Jim roared, taking steps forward as he spoke. He paused regaining his composure. "I may not be human anymore, but even a _monster _like me is better than what you did."

Jim turned and started to walk back to Claire when Forge's voice stopped him, "I'm not done with you!" He yelled.

Jim turned back and grinned like a demon. His cat like eyes made fierce by the rumble in his throat "Oh, trust me, you are." he let his face fall to anger, "You're not even a threat to me from where you stand now, and you were barely one before. So stop kidding yourself, and get your arm taken care of. If the doctor asks, it's a comminuted fracture." Jim said, his face no longer showing any emotion.

Forge huffed and walked out of the room, leaving Jim, Claire, Max and Steel alone.

-0-

Jim rolled his eyes as the Max and Steel came forward. "Great uncle you got there. Oh, and thanks for doing absolutely nothing when he had Claire in a vice grip." Jim snarled.

"We apologize," Steel spoke, "Commander Forge, is normally not… A terrible human being."

"Honestly, I've never seen him this on edge." Max said.

Max's eyes glanced over to Claire, who was held close by Jim's tail and arm over her shoulder. Still clutching her arm, which was now clean of blood and the area where the skin was broken already sealing itself, though incredibly bruised. Her arm was nearly completely purple and black.

"Steel, call dad in here so he can get a cast on Claire." Max said quietly to his floating alien partner. He then turned to the other two "Claire, is your arm already healing?"

She nodded, "Just the skin though."

"How?"

"You saw me cleaning Claire's cuts. Don't go beating around the bush, I've had quite enough crap for one night." Jim said, his narrowed eyes scanned the boy.

"See, when you say cleaning…" Steel said.

"He means licking." Claire finished.

"Anyways… I had Steel call my dad. He knows how to set a cast so he should be here any minute." Max said.

"Thank you," Jim said, visibly relaxing.

"Hey Jim," Max said. "I think you're kinda cool. Even if you did break Ferrus' arm." Max smiled.

Jim laughed, "I do, actually, feel a little bad about that, but not much. Everything else, attacking people and all, was done purely on instinct. So I hope no one was hurt too bad." Jim ran his hand nervously up his horn.

"They'll be fine. It's no worse than what they deal with regularly. I just don't think they were expecting to get knocked out so fast!" Max said.

"Oh, and sorry for throwing you across the desert. I was angry for being knocked out of the sky."

"It's fine. I haven't had anyone to beat me up for a while. But how strong are you? You stopped a punch from strength mode like it was nothing!"

"Stronger than I look."

They all laughed, then Jim heard footsteps coming from the hall. He looked at the man in the doorway and froze, his body went still, and his tail dropped as if it didn't have any muscle. Claire took immediate notice, "Jim are you alright?"

Max's voice covered her's, "Hey dad, she busted up her arm pretty bad. It needs a cast, can you help us out?"

The man walked closer, eyeing Jim. The man looked just like Max, just older and taller, darker hair, with the same intense blue eyes.

Jim stumbled until his back found the wall, and just stared at the man. Claire was at his side, trying to get him to snap out of his sudden stupor. He felt like he had the wind knocked out of him, and was dizzy.

"Hey Max, Steel. Who are your new… friends?" He asked, a friendly smile on his face.

"This is Jim, and Claire. It's kinda funny because you have the same name. Jim, Claire, this is my dad…" Max was about to introduce his dad when Jim interrupted.

"James Lake." Jim said, from the wall. Eyes panicked and wide. His tail still hung dead.

The man's face fell from a warm smile to a deathly glare in seconds, then calmly but dangerously asked. "How do you know that name?"

-0-

Jim grew up without his father, but that was fine. He knew that his dad and mom split up on good terms, he even left Barbra with the house, the car, the money, and her son.

Jim was named after his dad, James Lake. but he had always preferred Jim, just like his dad did. And although he never knew his father, or what had happened to him, he was not a stranger to how he looked. Jim had a small book of pictures of his father and his mother, when he was younger he would study them, that way if he ever spotted the man. He would know who it was.

After many years he stopped looking, but never forgot the face of his father.

-0-

The man raised his voice more, "How do you know that name?!" he yelled.

"Dad, what is it? That's not even your name." Max said quietly.

"Jim, are you alright?" Steel addressed the man.

Claire palled, when she realized what who the man was, her mate looked like he was about to pass out. She helped him stand as best she could with her good arm.

She whispered under her breath, "Jim, are you sure?"

He gave a determined nod, and steeled himself. He stood to his full height and faced the man.

"I'll ask you one more time…" The man yelled, but Jim cut him off.

"James Lake, Barbra lake, and James Lake Jr." Jim spoke in a firm but quiet voice.

The man's shocked look was quickly replaced by anger, and surprise. "Tell me how you know those names." He spoke solemnly.

"Because, I'm James Lake Jr." Jim didn't dare move. "Barbra Lake is my mother. And James Lake Sr. is my father." Jim ground out the last words as tears came to his eyes.

The man stumbled back, visibly shaken.

"Ok, but I don't get it. My dad's name is Jim Mcgrath. Not, James Lake." Max said matter-of-factly.

Steel laughed, "And then that's not even his real name."

The man spoke quietly, "Max, I want you and Steel to go, uh, go help clean up. There's quite a mess in the detention cells." his voice was far away. They stood there for a moment before doing as he was told. Once he was out of the room, the man collapsed on the floor. And stared at Jim, then buried his head in his hands

Jim was brave enough to move one step, but that was all. The silence in the room was deafening. He didn't know what to do, his dad was right there, and he couldn't move. Claire stepped forward, and took his hand, coming to the rescue like she always does. He couldn't love her more.

"Sir?" Claire said, smartly not using any of his names. His head popped up, and looked around for the source calling his attention. "My arm, it's kinda broken. Max said you know how to put casts on." She smiled at him kindly.

He got off the floor dazed and walked over to the counter and started pulling out medical supplies. "Come over here," he said.

Claire pulled Jim's hand and walked over to the counter. Righting a fallen chair the man called her over. "Sit down right here, and put your arm on the counter." He said distantly. Claire did as she was asked, but couldn't get Jim to move any closer. He began wrapping Claire's arm in the first layer of linen.

She cleared her throat, "So, uh, what can I call you?" she asked.

The man shook his head, "I… I have no Idea." he paused. "Jim might be too confusing. And I haven't been called James in…"

"17 years." Jim said.

The man silently opened another package and began wrapping Claire's arm in cotton fluff. "I'm sorry, I don't know what to say." He said looking at Jim.

Jim sighed and took a step closer, when the man flinced he didn't go any further, he looked at the ground, trying not to snarl. Claire smiled back at him, his ears perked up and his tail began to sway gently behind him. He walked a few steps further, not stopping when the man's eyes showed fear.

Jim spoke in his most human tone possible. "Hi, My name is James, but you can call me Jim." he reached out his five fingered hand for the man to shake. The man stared at the rough blue skin for a minute, then took his hand.

"My name is Ja'em Mk'rah, but you can call me dad." He gave a forced smile then returned to Claire's cast. Putting on the last layer of wet purple mesh around the rest of the cast. Jim stepped back several steps.

"And…" Jim heaseatated, "You're an alien." Ja'em's head shot up. "Max, he told me he was half alien. And if your his dad…" Jim paused. Then Claire said what he was thinking.

"Wait, Jim. That means your half alien." She said.

"Or at least I used to be." Jim stared at the wall.

"Uh, if you don't mind me asking, son, what are you?"

"Currently… extremely overwhelmed." he paused, his tail swished around behind him in an excited, agitated way. "But, as of what I thought I was last night, half troll. Now, I'm half human, half troll, half alien…"

"Babe, you suck at math." Claire laughed. He finished the cast and it just had to dry. "But you're right, if you were already half and half of one thing, then would that make you ⅓ of everything? Or ½ troll and ¼ human and ¼ alien?" Jim shrugged.

"Wait," Mk'rah said. "What happend to make you… half troll?"

"Simply put, the end of the world." Jim said.

"I… I'm confused." His dad said.

"Jim had to fight a greater opponent, and in order to win he had to become half troll." Claire said. But this explanation did nothing to the bewildered look on the mans face. She sighed. "Magic. It was magic."

His brows furrowed and he glanced between the two. "Magic?" he deadpanned.

Jim nodded. "A grumpy wizard gave me a crappy destiny." Jim laughed, then paused and his face got angry. "Oh my gosh, if Merlin new about this I'm going to…" he started growling when Claire interrupted.

"Take a deep breath. That's what you're going to do."

"Claire, how did you break your arm?" his dad asked.

"Pht…" Claire laughed. "The start to this night. Jim and I were exploring the desert, when your other son, knocked us out of the air. Jim was able to stop the fall from killing me, but I broke it on the landing."

"Wait, what do you mean knocked you out of the air?"

"We were jumping the mesas. He had autopilot on, said he was basically asleep. Mid one of my jumps he rammed into us." Jim explained.

"Jumping the _mesas?_" he looked surprised.

"But it's feeling so much better now. Thank you for casting it." Claire said. Waving the dry cast around.

"That, you can thank Barbara for." He smiled. "She practiced on me for a month straight."

"Back when she was training to be a nurse." Jim said. Silence ensued for a moment, then Jim had an epiphany. "Wait… I have a brother." his face lit up, and a broad toothy grin crossed his face. "Claire, I have a brother. An alien half brother… Man Toby would flip… oh my gosh I broke my uncle's arm…"

Claire giggled at his sporadic, child like behavior.

"Jim," His dad said suddenly. "I'm curious, how have you been able to safely expel your Turbo energy?"

Jim froze, "I'm sorry, my what?" he asked then crouched down.

His dad looked worried, he righted one of the fallen chairs and sat adjacent to Claire. "This," he said holding his hand in front of him for Jim to see. From his hand, blue light started to illuminate and swirl around it. Then he let it dissipate into the air. "It's Tachyon Unlimited Radiant Bio-Optimized energy. Or, simply put, Turbo energy. Being Tachyon or even part Tachyon, your body naturally makes it. Max said he started generating it a few months before he turned 16. The scans Steel took said that you generated it at a similar rate that Max does. But If Max doesn't use it, or doesn't have Steel to siphon the extra energy. He goes critical and… well, he kinda explodes. Releasing the energy in ways it's not supposed to, which could potentially kill him. So I'm curious, how you've been able to safely release the energy."

Jim looked at Claire, she shook her head "You don't think…" she said.

Jim stood and pulled the amulet out of his back pocket, "Tell me if this is the energy your talking about." He paused, after his dad nodded at him, he spoke. "For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command." Around his body, the armor formed. Leaving what was thought to be magic smoke, evaporating off of him. "Is… is that _turbo energy_?" He asked.

His father stared in awe, and nodded. "Where did that come from?"

"You'll have to be a bit more specific." Jim laughed.

"The armor. Was it like, shrunk and contained in that thing, or were you already wearing it and it was disguised by a hologram?" He asked excitedly.

"No, it's magic, and it came from the amulet." Jim said, tapping the device on his chest. Then pulled it off, letting the armor disappear again in a puff of energy.

"We thought that the 'blue smoke' was just magic residue. Jim, do you think that it did that for the other trollhunters?" Claire asked.

"I don't know, one of the first things Blinkey told me was the the amulet's actions would be unexpected, because I was a human… or half human…" Jim stared into space for a moment. "This is really throwing me off." His ears perked up, "Wait, does mom know?"

"Barbara? Know that I'm an alien… no." Ja'em said breathing out a long sigh and shaking his head.

"Jim, has your mom ever dated someone from her own species?" Clare teased.

"As far as I'm aware… no." Jim said, sighing in kind to his dad.

"Wait, what does that mean?"

"Currently, mom is dating something called a Changeling. It's similar to being half troll, only they can look human if they want… sorta."

"I'm not gonna ask."

Jim sat on his calves, and using his tail, discreetly beckoned Claire to come over. She got up from her chair and sat on Jim's thigh. He wrapped his tail around her casted arm, turning it over and looking at it from all sides. "Nice job, dad."

Claire initiated a quick nuzzle with the top of her head against Jim's cheek which he reciprocated. And got a weird look from Ja'em. Jim shrunk down, looking ashamed and quietly whimpered. Claire elbowed Jim in the side, and grabbed his ear.

"Jim, don't you dare berate yourself for that. I initiated that, and this isn't public and you aren't wearing the glamor mask. This is your dad, who is an alien. And you've got three different spices DNA running through your blood, so if he doesn't understand that your going to have some strange habits that don't belong with any culture, then that's his own fault. But it seems to me like he's a good guy. So, stop beating yourself up over it." Claire scolded, letting go of his ear.

Jim's ear twitched, and he smiled at her, and moved in to kiss her.

Ja'em was taken aback by the display against Jim, and was even more surprised when his son, produced a inhumanly long tongue and licked the girls face, her smile only brightened at this action, as she leaned into the _kiss_.

"Well, um… that happened." he paused, then leaned forward in his chair. "Jim, can you… uh, do you want to tell me about this…" He gestured wildly at nothing in particular.

Jim chuckled, but was excited that his dad wanted to know about him. "Well, my instincts are really strong, and they have me do things that used to be weird, but aren't now. Like, the sounds I make, anyware from purring to roaring. Or my tail, it does weird things, like this." He held up Claire's casted arm in his tail. "Or with Claire, like, how I took out all those guards trying to find her… sorry about the tank, those are probably really expensive. And instead of hugging, it's nuzzling. Or instead of a kiss it's a lick…" Jim paused. "I'm weirding you out aren't I?"

"No! No, keep going. This is actually really interesting. What else?"

Jim's ears perked up and his smile widened. "Well, ever since I became a troll everything is heightened. Like my taste, vision, hearing, my sense of smell is incredibly strong. But it's not just my senses. My emotions are always on edge, and crazy. It's sometimes hard to find a healthy medium between rage, and elation."

"And Claire," His dad turned his attention. "You're Jim's girlfriend?"

Jim's ears drooped, and he glanced at the incredibly interesting floor. Claire smiled at his shy display and turned back, grinning. "Hmmm… No. I'm Jim's mate."

Ja'em sat up straight in his chair, and stared at her for a moment, then with a sigh he leaned back in the chair, running his hand through his hair. His eyes turned to Jim, who still found the floor to be interesting. "Jim?"

Jim's head shot up, and stared at his dad. "Yes…?" he said slowly.

"Would you, um… maybe tell me, uh, what that's about…? I'm just trying to understand, all of... this…" He gestured to Jim. "So I can get to know you." Ja'em smiled, his eyebrows were pressed.

Jim's back straightened, and his tail unwound itself from Claire's cast. It moved in wide sweeps behind him curling in different ways. He looked at Claire, she nodded at his dad for Jim to tell him, and his eyes smiled.

Jim was resisting the urge to go and hug the his dad, pick him up and nuzzle him, but he didn't want to freak him out. The man was actively asking questions so that he could understand him. And what's more, Jim could tell he was being honest and genuine. The only other person who had done that was Claire.

Jim smiled a toothy grin, "Well," he started. "For some reason, my behaviors are more… _animal_ than most trolls, and sometimes, in my head, I see things differently. Like back when I was human, Claire actually _was_ my girlfriend. Now, I see her as my mate. And I do things for her, that I wouldn't really do for anyone else." Jim laughed.

"Like slicing tanks in half? And rollaly pissing off Forge?"

"No, I do that for free." Jim laughed. "I mean things like… well, I have to be around her. Especially if I don't know if she's safe, I don't like leaving her for long periods of time. And her arm, I cleaned the blood off, and her cuts heal better with my saliva…"

"And it helps with the pain." Claire added, her head rested on Jim's arm.

His dad had propped himself on his elbows, which were resting on his knees. Litening and nodding intently.

"I'm also a lot faster and stronger." Jim smiled.

"I would almost say that's a side effect of the turbo energy, but you're half troll… so I don't know. Jim how long have you been like this?"

"A little over two months." Jim said.

Claire stared into the distance, "It feels like it was a lifetime ago." she muttered.

"And, how did… what happened to make you half troll? Why?"

Jim gave a low growl, shaking his head. "War always comes with a price."

-0-

Max and Steel left the room confused and headed to prison blocks. He had Steel change his looks so he was in his jacket and jeans.

"Hey Steel, what do you think that was about?" Max asked, they passed the launch area and tank that had been sliced clean in two.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think I've seen Jim so angry before. Your father Jim, not troll Jim."

"Your right. You think he was trying to get rid of us?"

"With the 'go help clean up the detention cells'?" Steel did air quotes with his metal arms. "Most definitely."

"Besides, how much damage could Jim have done?" Max said, but as him and Steel turned the corner of the holding cells, they couldn't believe the damage.

The cell that Jim was in, had a long deep gash in the metal on the inside of the force field, wires sparked. The walls around the the hall were dented and had claw marks dug into the wall. The normally sealed, thick, _heavy_ steel door, had been pulled off the hinges and thrown back, bending it in an odd shape.

Max and Steel stare in the doorway at the disaster Jim had left in his wake to get to his mate.

"Wow…" Max said.

"Yup." Steel replied.

"So if this was a cop-out…"

"Let's leave."Steel said. Max turned and walked out, Steel followed.

-0-

They walked down the empty corridor with no purpose.

"Hey, Steel?"

"Yeah, Max?"

"I've been thinking. James Lake, it's not a Tachyon name, it's a human name. So, what was all that about? Your were with my dad since he left Tachyon, do you remember that name?"

"Max, you know as well as I do. I can't remember much of anything before you activated me."

"Yeah, I know. But Jim said something…"

"Jim said his name was James Lake Jr. and he thought, and called you're dad James Lake. What are you thinking?"

Max stopped walking, Steel flew in front of him and hovered.

"Either James Lake was someone dad new, or he was dad." Max said, brows furrowed and his jaw clenched.

"Max, there are some pretty heavy implications that come along with that." Steel said.

"I know, but you said it yourself. You can't remember anything, and dad was so freaked out at that name. What else could it be?"

"I don't know Max, but since the Makino invasion. Forge, your mom, your dad, they've been pretty straight with us. Don't you think we could just ask?" Steel suggested.

"Hmm, probably. But with the way dad kicked us out, I don't want to take any chances. Let's go turbo stealth and see what we can find out first."

Steel rolled his eye, then then said. "Alright, let's go."

"Go Turbo, Stealth." Max said, Steel linked with him and then they became camouflaged. Heading toward the room where he had left his father, Claire, and Jim, he silently ran past the other N-tech agents, and an angry Forge Ferrus with his only arm in a cast. He approached the room and came to a slow walk.

He entered, Jim's head looked in his direction for a quick moment then turned back. He watched the three converse, Jim sat on his calves, only the balls of his large feet and toes were touching the ground, his tail twitched and swayed, and his ears flicked every couple seconds. Claire was sitting on Jim's thigh, her arm now in a purple cast. His dad sat in one of the cushioned chairs, he was resting his elbows on his knees, then sat up straight.

-0-

Jim was enjoying telling his dad about himself, He told him about how he saved the world from Gunmar. His dad was happy to know that _both_ of his son's had saved the world.

Jim also learned a lot of things as they spoke. Claire sat quietly on his leg, and her head rested over his heart. A few times, when she rubbed her head against him after a distressing part of his stories, he had to bite back a purr.

He had learned, that after his dad was once the one with Steel as a partner, and that Steel was also an alien. Something called an Ultralink. And that Steel was with him when he lived in Arcadia for a very short two years. His dad was only supposed to be hiding there, he wasn't planning on getting married and having a kid. Jim found that his dad didn't actually want to leave, but purposely began slowly disting himself from his mom, so she wouldn't be broken up over the divorce, his dad said he hated himself for it.

When Jim asked why he had to leave, his dad laughed and said in a mocking tone, "To put it simply, the end of the world."

He had deserved that. Jim smiled and listened intently about how the enemies his dad had faced. how he and Steel flead Tachyon as it was destroyed. His new life with Molly and Max, after he left Arcadia. Then the Turbo S.T.A.R. accident.

He was just about to tell him what happened after he woke up when Jim heard quiet footsteps in the hallway, as they came closer Jim looked in the doorway for a brief moment. He saw nothing, but eyes don't always see what's there. Turning back to his dad, Jim's eyes dilated to form catlike slits, his tail began to twitch and swing, calculating. His ears flicked as he listened to the footsteps walk deeper into the room. His dad paused his story sat up and looked at Jim's changed demeanor.

Claire lifted her head and whispered something humanly inaudible, "Jim what is it?"

Jim sniffed the air, his nose scrunched up as he tested the air. Then a joyful grin spread across his face as his pupils returned to round circles and he spoke. "Little brother's here" He whispered.

Ja'em spoke. "What?"

Jim grinned, and put his finger to his lips quietly shushing his father. He heard Max's heartbeat behind him. With his arm that was draped around Claire's shoulder, he tapped her leg. Claire stood and gave a fake yawn and stretched.

Jim stood and walked up to Max not looking in his direction, Max's heart rate and breathing sped up and shuffled nervously. Jim sighed then put an arm on his invisible shoulder. Max gave a startled yelp and the camouflage dropped.

"You know, the last person who spied on me saw something that made him very uncomfortable. I don't suppose you want to watch me give Claire a bath do you?" Jim laughed.

Max jumped again, away from Jim. Steel and Max both yelled in surprise, scrambling away. Jim doubled over laughing harder.

Ja'em stood, he and Claire snickered a few feet away. "Man I wish I could have seen your face." She said.

In a flash of Turbo energy, Max was back in civilian clothes. A grumpy look on his face as Steel flew out of his chest with the same look on his face, only half an eye showing. The grumpy look only increased Jim's laughter. Max and Steel's faces' lost their disgruntled facade and shook their heads.

"Sorry." Max squeaked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"How did you even know we were in here?" Steel asked, flailing his arms around.

Jim composed himself, "You're not very stealthy, at least to me your not. The other two didn't hear, or see you. So good job fooling the purebloods." he snickered. But they both looked confused. "I could hear you, and smell you."

"He's impossible to sneak up on." Claire giggled.

"Hmm, well with ears as large as those I suppose he could hear anything." Steel exclaimed.

"Steel!" Max yelled. "Be nice."

"What? I'm just saying."

"He's fine Max." Jim said, then turned to his father. "Umm… Ja'em," Jim said. "So, we gonna tell them?"

Jim wanted nothing more than to run over and hug Max, and tell him that he was his older brother. In his head he felt the need to, but if his father had sent him and Steel out of the room in the first place, and he didn't know if he was comfortable sharing this information with his other son. Jim respected that, but hoped he would get the chance to tell Max that they were brothers.

Max and Steel looked royally confused.

Jim stared at his dad, waiting for the answer. Ja'em's face changed from moment to moment, unsure, excited, scared. He opened and closed his mouth several times. Jim stood waiting while his tail whipped the air behind his back. Jim pulled on his horn and waited more.

-0-

Ja'em didn't know what to do. He was a freaking alien engineer and he didn't know what to do. For the first time in his life, he was completely at a loss. His son, no. Sons, stared at him so did the girl and the ultralink. Jim wanted to know if he was going to tell Max, but for all that implied he didn't know if he should. he just stood there, his face contorting in all sorts of expressions. He opened and closed his mouth on several occasions. He looked like a fish. The silence was becoming too much. He would have to say something soon, luckily Steel came to the rescue and spoke.

"Jim, er, Ja'em. I think Max may have already know what other Jim is meaning to discuss."

No, that wasn't coming to the rescue. That was dragging him closer to the fire.

Then Jim spoke, "What is it you think you know?"

Cryptic, nice. Jim seemed to know how to handle these sorts of situations really well, in the back of his mind, Ja'em felt a burst of pride. It was quickly chased away with the thought of his past life and his current one colliding.

Moly never knew about Barbara, let alone about James Jr. he was unsure if he wanted her, _or _Max to know. Although it didn't matter, Max was clever and he figured out most everything about N-tech without Forge telling him. A stupid decision really on his brother in-laws half.

"So um, dad…" Max said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "Steel's memory is still damaged, and he doesn't remember anything before I activated him. So he doesn't know how long you were on earth. Or where you went before you and uncle Ferrus founded N-tech… So…"

"If you have one human name now, what's to say you didn't have a different one before." Steel spoke.

"Or, a different life." Max said firmly.

Max would definitely figure it out and he already was beginning to, if he hadn't already, but he was grateful that Jim had asked and not just told Max, he was considerate and cleaver, even though he wanted very badly to tell him. And Ja'em knew more secrets being held from Max and Steel would not be a good thing.

Silence filled the room.

-0-

Jim's tail and ears twitched uncomfortably in the silence. He could hear four sets of heartbeats and Steel's circuits buzzing. A small, animal whine came from his throat, and he could almost smell the anxiety in the room.

Claire took notice, she always did. She came around behind him, and running her hand down his tail from below the base near his spine to the tip of his tail, guided it around her waist, then laced her fingers with his. He squeezed her tightly, eternally grateful for her.

He wanted to speak, but it didn't seem right to call his dad by his alien name, or either of his human ones. And he couldn't call him dad, not unless his father gave his consent to share knowledge, it wasn't entirely his secret to tell. Then Max said what he wanted to.

"Dad?" Max said. His eyes were full of concern and his eyebrows pressed. Steel hovered next to him, with his arms hanging limply.

"I don't want to keep secrets from you and Steel." Jim's dad said, and his heart Jumped. "Max, I know how frustrated you were when Forge refused to tell you anything, about… anything. And yes, I did have a life before I met your mom and founded N-tech."

Jim could barely contain himself, he was stepping slowly in place and his tail tightened and loosened repeatedly around Claire's waist. He heard her whisper so only he could hear. 'Calm down babe, just wait.'

Then his dad said the best thing ever. "Jim, you tell them. I need to sit down." he turned back to his chair and sat, half smiling at them.

He about lunged forward, but a small hand on his chest stopped him before he could.

"Jim, you might want to explain before you tackle him." Claire smiled up at him, her eyes shining.

"Oh… right." Jim ran his hand up his horn. Thinking about how to tell Max. "hmmm, oh! Max, remember how I told you I was half human, and half troll?"

Max nodded, his eyes picking apart of the information.

"Okay so, that was an unintentional lie. You see, I'm part human, part troll, and apparently I'm part Tachyon." Jim's face was covered in a huge uncontainable toothy grin.

Max and Steel froze, and Max's heart rate skyrocketed. But he stood still.

"I'm impressed, you got them _both_ speechless. You are truly incredible." His dad's eyebrows were practically at his hairline, and a small smile spread across his face.

"Hey!" Steel yelled

"Wait," Max spoke. "So, what you're saying is…"

"I'm your brother." Jim said smiling.

-0-

Max didn't know what to think, or if he knew _how_ to think.

Jim, had just announced he was part Tachyon. And with all that Jim and previously implied… his mind was racing. He heard his dad say something, then Steel yelled in response pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Wait," he said shaking his head, "So what you're saying is…" _That you're my brother._ He thought.

"I'm your brother." Jim echoed his thoughts. The smile spread across his face couldn't have been any wider, his tusks stuck out and his eyes sparkled.

"_Well, that explains the Turbo energy_." Steel said in Max's head.

He wasn't sure how he felt about having Jim as a brother though. He was a seven and a half foot blue creature with horns and a tail. He had weird behaviors, and a cool sword, and cool armor, and he took out over half the N-tech agents without trying, and his dad seemed to like him.

_His dad,_ Max thought, _our dad_.

Weather he wanted to or not, Jim's contagious smile won out. Max decided that weather he liked it or not, Jim was his brother.

Max smiled back at Jim, and resolved he did like it.

But he still had no clue what to say, like at all.

-0-

Max was smiling at Jim, but he wasn't saying anything. He didn't know what he was thinking, and he didn't like the silence in the room. Jim's throat produced sound, but the only thing that came out was a low whine. His mind was overwhelmed with all sorts of information, but most of all, his brain was telling him to go meet his brother. Jim had a new need to protect his younger sibling, and nuzzle his face, then playfully wrestle the boy. His instincts were overwhelming him, and it took a _lot_ of willpower to keep them in. He tried to talk again, only for another whimper to sound.

_Great job brain, you broke me. _Jim thought.

He looked down at Claire, standing at his side. Her hand held his tail firmly, she was watching Max intently. Jim let a small whine out to get her attention. She looked up at him. He wriggled his tail in her hand.

"Oh, sorry." Claire whispered and let go of his tail. He bent down and with a small flick of his tongue kissed her forehead. Slowly he took a step toward Max, his tail snaked behind him.

His ears twitched as he fought his instincts, a small inaudible purr escaped him and rumbled in his chest, and was glad he was the only one who knew it was there.

Having been so focused on the matter at hand, Jim didn't hear the other person coming toward the room until he entered and announced his presence. Jim dropped on all fours, and while not taking his thinning eyes off the newcomer, backed toward Claire.

"Hey, Max, Steel. Chief wants to see you, pronto! He's really mad!" The young man came in on a skateboard, he had grey brown hair. He wore a lab coat with the arms ripped off and a pair of headphones. As he entered he was tapping some kind of holo-screen from a metal arm brace. As he looked up he asked. "And, do you know what happened to his arm? Well, arms?" Then he saw Jim, he shrieked and as he stumbled his skateboard slipped out from under him leaving him on his butte.

The sight snapped Jim out of his low to the ground position and he couldn't help but laugh with everyone else in the room.

"Who needs Toby to break the silence when we've got this guy?" Claire laughed.

Jim stood and gave Claire a sad glare.

"Sorry." she looked at the floor downcast. Jim felt a pang of guilt, he hadn't meant to make her feel bad, he just sorely missed his best friend. He lifted her chin with his tail, but whipped his head back at the body on the floor when it moaned in pain.

"Ey, ey, ey!" he said. He got up and looked up at Jim with shock. "What is that thing?" Suddenly, the headphones around his neck sizzled and sparked. "Hey, what gives?!" he said as he ripped the smoking tech off his neck.

Jim rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself, "Claire, no warning?" he whispered to her.

Her eyes still purple she glared at the man. "I'm getting sick of hearing it." she whispered back.

The sound of his dad clearing his throat caught their attention. "Berto, now is not the best time for Max. I'll go talk to Forge." he turned to Max and Steel. "Boys, I don't want this going any further than Berto, Kat and Jefferson. And… let me tell you're mother and uncle. Jim, I have no control over you. If you decide to tell Barbara, well…"

"I'll let you know before I tell her." Jim smiled and nodded as his father left the room.

-0-

Berto, looked around the room at everyone. Jim had called the creature, _Jim…_ It looked humanoid, he wondered if it was a new kind of alien. As he stood, he towered over everyone by at least a foot. The creatures bare feet sat weirdly, only the toes and balls of his feet touched the floor, the arch of his foot was long and it didn't look like his heels were meant to make contact with the ground. The way he stood his knees were always slightly bent. With dark horns, and a tail similar to a lion's. But he was blue.

Berto had no Idea what the elder scientist had ment, but apparently _was_ allowed in on some sort of secret. His eyes drifted over to Steel.

Steel threw his arms up as if caught by the police. "Don't look at me."

He looked at Max, who rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding everyone's gaze. Berto's eyes flitted to Jim's tall figure walking closer behind Claire, it's tail wrapped around her wrist a few times. _What's that about?_

Max and the blue figure stared at each other smiling for a second, then Max spoke. "So was dad saying we _could_ tell Berto? Or was he _telling_ us to?" The blue one shrugged.

"You're all a bunch of idiot boys! You have zero communication skills." Claire yelled, and pinched the bridge of her nose. Jim snickered, "Max, could you introduce him…" She pointed at Berto.

"Duh!" Max facepalmed. "Berto this is Claire, she's what happened to Forge's robot arm. And this is Jim… my… brother." Max couldn't help but smile at his words. Glancing back at Jim, they both smiled wildly. Berto froze.

"I'm what happened to Forge's real arm." Jim chuckled lightly. He was slightly surprised to hear it, him, talk.

Berto thought about it, and laughed. Figuring it was just a joke.

"Ha, good one Max. You almost had me." he laughed.

Max's smile fell. "I wasn't kidding."

-0-

Jim smiled when his brother introduced him. He liked the sound of it spoken out loud by none other then Max, his brother.

Berto thought he was joking and laughed at the so called prank, then Max looked almost hurt.

"I wasn't kidding." he said brows pressed.

Berto looked back and forth between the two, then to Steel who pretended not to notice. Then looked at the only possible sane person left in the room, Claire. His mate just giggled and said, "Don't look at me, I'm human!"

They all stood in an odd circle, a half troll, a half Tachyon, two humans and an Ultralink.

"Berto, was it?" Jim asked, even though he already knew. The man nodded. "So, I'm one fourth human, I'm half troll, and I'm one fourth Tachyon. Ja'em, or Jim, is my dad."

"Oh, um, that makes sense, I guess." Berto shook his head, "No, no it doesn't"

Max spoke up, "Before my, uh, our dad founded N-tech he had another life…" Max looked at Jim with a half smile, asking for him to explain more.

"_Our_ dad, lived in Arcadia for two years before he left. In that time, he met my mother, and married her. They were married for about a year and a half before he left. I was around six months old. He said that he left to fight Makino with Forge, and later met Molly and married her, had Max…" He paused. "My family got a lot bigger in the short space of a few hours." He sighed deeply, his tail moved in sporadic bursts.

"Yeah, this just got a bit too personal for me…" Berto said, kicking up his skateboard.

"You heard what Jim said, no further then Kat and Jefferson!" Steel said.

Berto nodded and skated out of the the room, looking dazed.

"So, um, how old are you?" Max asked.

"17, I think I'm just over a year older than you, little brother." Jim smirked.

"Oh that's cold." Max smiled.

Claire giggled at their behavior, acting like brothers already.

Jim's tail wriggled around him, his ears flicked against his head, and he was licking the teeth on the inside of his mouth.

"This room is too small, and I've been in here for too long. Think _Uncle_ Forge would flip if we went outside?"

"Most definitely," Steel said, "But that's never stopped us before." A small pictogram of a smiley face showed in place of Steel's eye.

Jim laughed at the robot, he clenched and relaxed his fists repeatedly, becoming anxious in the room, having stayed there for a long period of time. He was also getting hungry.

"I'd like a breath of fresh air too. And I wouldn't mind pissing off Forge again." Claire said.

"Ok, I get that he was being totally terrible. But he really is normally a really good guy. Just paranoid and brusque." Max said. "Give him a chance please."

"Everyone deserves a second chance, especially family. And I've forgiven worse." Jim smiled. "But can we please go outside, before I go nuts?"

"Yeah, follow me." Max said, and with a wave of his hand beckoned them out into the hall.

"Say, there wouldn't happen to be any sort of small rodents in this desert of yours, would there?" Jim asked as he followed Max and Steel down the hallway, Claire walking next to him, she snickered at the question.

"Um, yeah I guess. I've seen some rabbits around… Why?" Max replied.

"Uh, first, I need to know how comfortable you're gonna be with me?"

"What does that mean?" Steel asked. Getting questioning looks from the pair from over the shoulder glances.

"Well, I do some things that you're going to think are really weird, or strange, or discusting. And when I'm around others I have to fight my instincts, so that I don't do something that others wouldn't want to see. So my question is, how much am I going to be able to be myself around you?" Jim's ears fell slightly. He waited for his brother to say something like, 'just act like a human would' but he didn't.

"Jim, you took out over half the base, single handed. I'm fairly sure you weren't even trying. Not even I could do that, You may be part Tachyon, but you're also part troll. I think that's pretty cool. So you do you, Bro." He smiled as Jim's ears perked up and his tail swayed a bit more quickly than before.

"Thanks Max, the only other person who lets me be myself is Claire. It means alot." Jim said. He laced his fingers with Claire's.

They entered the large enclosure where the tank had shot Jim, the halves of the machine lay there in two. "Was that you?" Claire asked, Jim nodded, his ears folded against his head as he slouched, slightly embarrassed. They had a good laugh about the tank.

They got to the center of the hollow mountain and looked up at the skylight.

"I'll fly you guys out," Max called Steel and transformed into 'turbo flight mode' covering his face and body in his armor.

"That was super cheesy." Claire said.

"The cameras love it." he laughed.

"That's right, dad said you're a _public_ superhero." Jim nodded. "Also, I'll get out on my own. I don't think you'll be able to lift me."

"Why?" Steel asked from Max's chestplate.

"Because I'm basically made of stone." Jim shrugged.

Max stepped back as if surprised, he couldn't tell with the helmet on.

"How are expecting to get out?" Steel asked.

"You take Claire up, I'll follow you out." Jim laughed and let go of Claire's hand.

Max wrapped his arm around Claire and hovered off the ground, waiting to see what Jim would do, their legs dangled in the air.

Jim laughed at his brother's curiosity. He looked around at the walls and decided on the best spot to scale the wall. Once he picked the point, he ran at it and sprang from the ground reaching a small ridge for his fingers to grasp about 20 ft above the ground. Holding on with one hand and his feet planted against the stone, he looked behind him grinning.

"Dude!" Max yelled. "That was sick!"

"Pht…" Jim snorted. "Wait till I get outside. Then you can be impressed."

Jim grabbed the ridge with his other hand and launched himself up. He probably looked like a jumping spider to the others. As he climbed his tail swang around moving to compensate for ballance. Grasping the small cracks and rocks on the wall, Jim climbed with surprising speed. Once on a ledge near the top he jumped from the edge up and out of the skylight, landing on top of the mountain.

He took a deep breath in, smelling the cool night air. The soft breeze brushing his skin, and the moon almost at its peak. Max landed next to him and set Claire down.

"Gotta admit, I do like the smoother landing." She said.

"Hey!" Jim admonished.

She shrugged.

"That was amazing! How did you do that?" Steel said, leaving Max's chest in a puff of energy.

"Just did. Besides, you ain't seen nothin yet." Jim glanced at the steepness of the mountain and grinned. "Race you to the bottom!"

"Hey, no fair. You got a head start." Max yelled. He cackled madly as his two legged sprint changed to four legged, running down the face of the steep mountain. Jumping from one ledge to the next, somersaulting down the the side, and before he reached the bottom he pushed off the mountain jumping for the ground. Sticking the landing and looking Bad-A. A feral grin crossed his face as Max, Steel and Claire landed and Max's flight suit disappeared leaving the regular covering, without the helmet. The indignant looks on Steel's and Max's faces', which only made him cackle harder.

"Not fair." Max walked up to him and punched him in shoulder.

Instincts needed to be satisfied.

Jim shoved him back (gently) and pounced on him knocking him over.

"What's not fair?" Jim smirked, standing over his brother.

"This." Max yelled as he pulled his legs to his chest and drove his feet into Jim's chest, sending a few steps back. Max threw a couple punches, some hit Jim and he laughed as they did nothing. The others he dogged or blocked. He swiped a few times with his claw like nails, but that didn't do much against the others suit. Jim managed to trip him once with his tail, but Max learned quickly to watch the tail.

Jim lauged, and charged with his head lowered, sending Max sliding back on his feet with an undignified 'oof'. Suddenly, his eyes lit up like small blue fires and he ran back with speed that wasn't his, catching Jim off guard. That was something. Max collided with him and took him to the ground.

They sat up on the ground, and laughed together. Jim started purring, and when he realized what he was doing it was too late. He immediately stopped and shrunk in on himself, lowering his ears and wrapping his tail around him where he sat. burying his head between his knees and grasping his horns. Than he felt a hand on his shoulder, it was Max's.

"Hey man, don't do that. It's good. I told you to just be yourself. And I meant it." He looked up to see his brother's eyes, the same eyes he had. The intense blue that could show the coldest of looks or share the warmest moments.

Jim smiled, his ears still folded back, Max nodded. Jim threw his arms around his brother and his tail wrapped around the other, Max hugged him back. When they pulled apart Jim spoke.

"Brother."

"Brother." Max replied.

-0-

Claire watched Jim land as they flew down. Looking swol as ever with the sleeves of his shirt tightened against his arms. As they landed Jim was laughing madly at the other two. Max marched up to Jim and punched his shoulder. He probably didn't expect for Jim to fight back, for a moment she was worried that Jim felt threatened. Than she watched Jim, his tail wasn't agitated, it was showing his excitement. Her and Steel watched the fight play out.

"Should we stop them?" Steel asked her, his tone voiced concern.

She shook her head, "No, I think Jim just learned some new instincts." She laughed.

"What do you mean?" Steels face replaced with a question mark.

"Ok, so Jim has different instincts than a regular human… Or Tachyon… Wow this must really be throwing him off. Anyways, his troll half has him do things that most of the time would be considered animal." Claire started, she was about to continue when Steel spoke.

"And animals have different instincts toward different members of their families. After he found he had a brother, his range of instincts grew." Steel threw his arms around.

Claire smiled at him and stared for a moment.

"What?" He asked.

"I'm just glad there is someone with some brains, out in the field with Max." She snorted.

They watched as Jim tripped Max with his tail, and laughed as his face plowed into the dirt.

"So, if they're play-fighting, you know like a pair of cubs. Who do you think will win?" Steel asked.

"Hm, I haven't really seen Max fight. I know Jim could and already has beat him, but he wouldn't want to hurt him now. So there's a good chance that Max could win, or Jim might just throw the fight." She smiled as she watched Jim play with his brother.

"You're right. Do you think Max could actually do any damage against him?" Steel humed.

"Mmm, no. He once got hit in the face with a fire extinguisher at a couple hundred miles per hour and laughed about it." she said, but not paying attention.

Steel looked at her with an exclamation on his face. Unsure what to say he turned back to watching the fight, his arms dangled from his body.

"So Max's armor, how does that work? Their dad said that you generate it. And it seems he can only put it on or change it with you?" Claire asked, turning to face the Ultralink.

"Well, he can't change it without me. But it doesn't actually come off. It's disguised kinda like a hologram. I control the steel suit, and if I wanted to I could control Max. Kinda like a puppet, but I don't like to do that. It's what most Ultralinks do, and I deserted Mackino's army for a reason." he floated and stared at her.

"Ja'em told me Jim and I about that. Thanks for saving the world by the way." She said.

Steel bowed, "At your service, lady Claire."

They watched the fight further for a few more minutes.

"I bet you ten bucks he rams him in the stomach." Claire said. No ten seconds later, Jim rammed his head into Max's gut, sending him sliding back on his feet. A good 20 yards.

"I don't have to pay it if Max uses his Turbo energy to run back at him." They watched Max's eyes light up and run at Jim with inhuman speed. Jim's eyes went wide, the others speed surprised him enough for him to hesitate and Max collided with Jim knocking him over.

"Even." Claire nodded. Silently impressed at how well they both knew their partners.

The boys lay laughing in the dirt and sat up. They were sitting silently, then Max's eyes widened slightly and looked at Jim. Suddenly her mate curled in on himself, burying his head in between his knees and grabbing his horns. Claire's heart fell, Jim must've purred. She knew how embarrassed he got when he purred around others. She about ran to her when Steel flew into her path.

"Wait, I think Max is handling it." He said quietly. Then turned around to watch.

In the distance, Claire could see Max put his hand on Jim's shoulder. Her mate's head shot up to see who had touched him. Then Max spoke, it was hard to hear at that distance, but the still night allowed it.

"Hey man, don't do that. It's good. I told you to just be yourself. And I meant it." He said. Claire's heart went out to Max, the kid was almost a complete stranger, and he was accepting him. She knew it meant the world to Jim, especially because they were brothers.

Jim threw his arms around Max, he tensed for a moment then wrapped his arms around Jim. when they pulled away Jim said something she couldn't hear. Then Max repeated it.

"Brothers."

* * *

About 32 pages. And this is one of the short chapters...

R&R Please.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Heads up with the longest chapter, like, ever! It's 50 pages long!

A response to a Guest Review: "What gave me the idea -for Jim and Max to be brothers-?" I was thinking about the similarities at first. Like the Crazy intense blue eyes, then the blue smoke. Jim's lack of father figure, and Max's dad being 'dead'. I just had to change the cannon slightly for it to work. The reason Jim's turbo energy levels are always so low is because the amulet is constantly siphoning it off of him.

If there are any other questions about anything, feel free to PM me or review. Love the reviews. Usually if I get a lot of reviews, I update sooner.

I don't own stuff. ENJOY!

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

Jim walked back with Max to Claire and Steel. He couldn't stop himself from smiling and his tail was practically wagging. As they got closer, he ran low up to Claire wrapping her in his arms and spinning her around. He gave her a long _kiss_ along her jawline to her ear. Purring for everyone to hear. She giggled and licked the upturned corner of his lips. His eyes gazed into hers softly.

'Find yourself?' She asked for his ears only.

He whined happily in response. Then set her back on the ground. Max caught up and laughed at how happy Jim was.

"Alright, about those rabbits…" Jim smiled, rubbing his hands together.

"Yeah, what about them?" Steel asked.

He laughed and shook his head. "I'm starving."

"I'm guessing that you can't eat human food then?" Max said, slightly grossed out.

"Not really," Jim shrugged, his tail twitched.

"Jim, as much as I like rabbit, I want something other than rodent for lunch." She smiled. "Also, I think you and Max want to spend some time together."

Claire knew him so well, he smiled and replied, "Thank you, babe!" nuzzling her cheek. "But I'm not leaving you here, no offense to Uncle. I'm just not comfortable with it." Jim lifted his head, testing the air. "Camp is close, your arm up for a little jaunt?" Claire nodded, he lowered himself for her to climb onto his back.

"But, let's stick to the ground. It's going to be a while before I want to go jumping mesas again." she said. Jim nodded and wrapped his tail tightly around her waist.

"Lunch?" Max said.

"Kinda nocturnal. So, you wanna race?"

"You are so on!" Steel yelled, and planted himself on Max's chest.

Than Max was talking to no one. "Flight or Speed?" he paused and rolled his eyes. "I don't think anything would be against him." another pause. "I don't actually think he does." then a confused look crossed his face. "I'll have to ask him."

"Earth to Max, what the hell are you talking about?" Jim said, Claire on his back, her chin rested on his shoulder. They both looked extremely confused.

"Oh, I hear Steel's voice in my head, he can talk to me so no one else can hear, but I still talk out loud. I've gotten so many weird looks at school." He laughed.

"What did he say?" Claire said.

"Uh, I can still hear you." Steels voice said.

"Shut it bucket head," Max said.

"Anyways. I'm looking forward to taking a midnight nap, I've been using a lot of my magic, and I'm exhausted. So let the race begin." Claire said sighing.

"Sorry Claire." Jim said, "Would you officiate?"

"Wait, hold that thought. Steel, turbo speed." Max said, his suit change and became more blue, some of the markings looked fluid. "Ok, ready." he bent down into a pre running position.

Claire rolled her eyes, "On your marks, get set, go." she said it quickly and without emotion. Both boys took off at running. Jim did his best not to jar Claire too much. Then laughed when he realized that Max was racing to a destination he didn't know. Claire whispered in his ear, "Does he know where he's going?" she asked.

Jim laughed, "Nope." He gently transitioned onto his fours, running alongside Max, who was going surprisingly fast.

"You're not going to let him beat you are you?" Claire asked.

Jim glanced over at his brother and smirked. With a competitive snarl, he moved to running on all fours and started running faster. And oh how he wished he could have seen Max's face. He had slowed down in a moment of shock but then picked up his pace, but was unable to keep up with Jim.

After running around the bases of small mountains and plateaus, Jim came to a stop. Max ran up behind him and switched back to the steel suit, dropping the helmet. Max bent over with his hands on his knees panting.

"How… do you… run so fast?" he said gasping for air.

Jim shrugged and let Claire down, releasing his tail from around her waist and letting it sway behind him. "You ok?" He asked. Jim and Claire snickered at the boy struggling to breath.

Max gave a heavy nod than stood up straight, Steel disconnected from him. Looking around he asked, "Where's your camp?"

"It's up that mountain a ways, found a nice large cavern for everyone to rest." Jim pointed up at a spot on the side of a large basin where the mouth of a cave could be seen.

"Wait, everyone?" Max asked.

"Are there more half trolls?" Steel added.

Jim shook his head, "No, I'm truly one of a kind," he growled. "Trolls, two changelings and a Wizard. But mostly trolls."

"So if you're camp is up there, why did we stop down here?" Steel asked.

"Because they don't really like humans. There are a few exceptions, but it takes a while." Claire said pointedly. "And while you are now apart of Jim's 'pack'. I'm still not sure how they would react to another person." She explained. "Now can I please go take my nap?"

Max mouthed the word 'pack' to Steel, he shrugged with a question mark on his face.

"I'm gonna take Claire up, wait here." Jim picked Claire up behind the legs and shoulders. Then pushing off the ground with his powerful legs, jumped up to the ledge. When he landed he bent his knees more to cushion the landing for Claire, letting her down he said.

"Hey, don't tell Blinkey, not yet. He and mom have been phone chatty lately."

"Got it babe. I'll just tell him you went out hunting. I'll also see if I can't convince him to let us stay a few more days." Claire let out a long tired yawn.

"Your the best," Jim licked her forehead. "Now go get some rest."

She turned and walked into the cave silently. Jim listened to her steps into the cave, once he heard blinkey catch up with her, he jumped back down to where his brother was. He smiled on his way down and landed softly on the ground below.

...

Max watched his brother jump up to a ledge at least 40 ft above the ground in one leap. Steel laughed at the face he was making, his jaw hang slack and his eyes were blown wide.

"Does he even need to use turbo energy to enhance his abilities?" Steel said.

"No, but I'd like to see what happens when he does." Max shook his head. "I'm still curious how he doesnt blow up."

"Hm, I think it might have something to do with that armor of his. Remember when Forge blew up the room and Jim put his armor on?"

Max nodded.

"Well, when he did his turbo energy levels spiked. I think that the armor might channel it for him, similar to how I do it for you." Steel humed.

Jim landed silently, with a large grin on his face.

"That's not normal." Max said.

"Yeah, you're going to need to be _a lot_ more specific." Jim stood and gestured to himself. "I'm not normal." He laughed his eyebrows raised.

"He has a point Max." Steel noted.

Max shrugged.

He watched Jim, his tail started to move more quickly and his ears started twitching. He wondered how much he could feel from his tail and if his ears moving was voluntary or not. Jim was awesome, as far as Max could tell he was a really nice guy who just doesn't like people messing with his family. Which he totally understood.

Jim rubbed his hands together and his long tongue crossed his upper teeth. "Alright, I'm starving. Time to go hunting." his smile was feral and his eyes had thinned, a low growling sound came from him.

Max's pulse quickened at the sight of his brother being totally creepy, Jim picked up on it and froze.

"But, if you don't…" he started.

Max cut him off, "No. I'll come with you. I want to get to know you. Even if you are being totally creepy." he said it with a smile.

Jim relaxed again and his tail set to twitching again. His smile was pure bliss and his eyes lit up the rest of his face. "You'll probably want to fly, I don't know if you'll be able to keep up with me otherwise." he laughed and waited for Max to change.

"You know, I could show you how to enhance your physical ability further through your Turbo energy." Max offered.

Jim let out a loud belly laugh, "If you do that, you're never going to beat me in a race." He lowered onto his hands and feet.

"Was there ever a chance of me doing that before?" Max laughed, then transformed into his flight suit.

Jim shook his head, "I was pushing it before, but probably not."

Max hovered above the ground, and laughed.

Jim lifted his nose to the air, sniffing the area for prey. His eyes thinned once again and became laser focused. Without warning, he took off at breathtaking speeds. Max gained altitude and followed from the sky, watching him was incredible.

In between the smaller cliffs Jim ran in the shadows where the moon's light didn't reach, he swerved around the rocks and jumped over obstacles as though they were perfectly visible. As he exited the small canyon, his speed increased. Max struggled to keep up, even flying. Running on the ground Jim pounced onto the wall and started actually _running on the side of a freaking cliff_. He heard a growl and Jim suddenly disappeared from view.

Steel used his scanners to locate him, he was hiding in a small shadow next to a rock formation.

"What's he doing?" Max whispered.

In Max's head steel said, "_I think he found a rabbit._"

"Oh."

They watched Jim stalk forward, low to the ground and invisible to the naked eye. They spotted his target, a small brown rabbit chewing on some roots. Jim silently crawled into the blue light of the moon.

In a blur Jim had pounced and the rodent hung limply from his mouth. Max glided down and landed with flight mode vanishing, leaving him without his helmet.

Jim dropped the rodent from his mouth into his hand. He eyed Max warily, his tail drifted nervously around his legs.

"Dude, I told you to just be yourself." Max said.

Jim shook his head, "No. You really don't want to see me skin this." Max was about to talk again but he stopped him. "Just trust me bro." He said.

"Alright." Max nodded.

"I'm going to run around the corner. I'll be back in a few minutes. And if your hungry, I'll kill you a rabbit and cook it for you." Jim laughed and placed the furry brown creature back in his mouth and leapt away, out of sight.

In a flash, he was in his normal clothes and blue jacket, and Steel unlinked from him.

"That was kinda disturbing." Steel said.

"Yeah, but I really want to be able to get to know him. He said that he has to fight his instincts so that people aren't weirded out by him. And I don't want him to have to fight himself when he's around me."

"But aren't you weirded out in the least? He killed the poor bunny with his mouth." Steel whined.

"I'm fairly sure that's what he's talking about, he's worried about making others uncomfortable, so he pushes away his… How did Claire put it?" Max paused.

Steel tapped his face, thinking back. "I believe she said, feral behavior."

"And he has to constantly fight against it? It's probably draining, fighting what your brain is constantly telling you to do. I may not know exactly how it feels, but I hate having to hide being MaxSteel from Kirby, Butch, and Sid. So I can't even imagine having to hold back all the time."

"Hey, at least you don't look like that." Steel pointed in the direction Jim had left.

"He's better looking than you." Max laughed. Turbo zapping Steel.

"I'll have you know, Claire happens to think I'm incredibly handsome." Jim poked his head out from around the corner. The light of the moon lighting up his horns and fur. He walked closer and sat cross legged by Max, his tail sat idly around him. He was licking his teeth, and smearing… he was licking blood off his face. In his hand he held the skinned and gutted rodent. "She's even told me she thinks I look better than I did when I was human…" Jim's face fell, he paused for a moment. "This is going to take some getting used to."

"I only found out about six months ago. It was _so_ weird." Max said.

Jim's head tilted and his face contorted, his brows drew together. "How did you not know?"

"Forge didn't feel like sharing _any_ information with Max and I." Steel said.

"I still promise to give him a second chance, but he sounds like a real jerk sometimes." Jim snarled.

"You have no idea." Max sighed, he glanced at the meat in Jim's hands. "Uh, you going to eat that?"

Jim's eyes popped and he laughed. "Oh, almost forgot about that. You sure you don't mind?"

Max shook his head. Jim smiled, then sheepishly dug into his meal. Max laid on his back and looked up at the stars, trying to ignore the squelching sound of the meat as Jim ate. He took a deep breath of the clear, cool night air.

"You know, I've always liked the night sky." Max said. "Looking at it just feels right."

Jim choked, coughing, he beat his chest with his fist. He snarled and regained his breath. Max sat up and eyed him carefully.

"You okay." he asked.

Jim nodded, he licked his fingers and tusks. Turning to Max he smiled and said, "Just what you said, it's kinda funny." his jaw opened and closed as he cleaned the inside of his mouth with his long tongue, dislodging pieces of meat from in between his teeth.

"Why? I was being serious." Max said.

Jim switched to sitting on his calves. "No, I know. It's just ironic, because…" Jim paused, "Don't tell Uncle about this. He could use it against me." Max rolled his eyes in response, but nodded. "It's ironic because the night sky is the only sky I can look at."

"Are your eyes sensitive to light?" Steel questioned.

"Sortof, bur the sun kinda turns me to stone." Jim shrugged it off, but Max's face was shocked and Steel's face was an exclamation mark. "Guys it's fine, I came to terms with my troll half a while ago. Other than the few drawbacks, it's actually pretty great!" Jim's smile was accented by his tusks protruding out from his lower jaw.

"What are those?" Steel asked.

"Well, not being able to be in the sun is one. Another is almost zero human contact, and I can't eat most human foods. I would say I lost my humanity, but I guess I never actually had that in the first place…" Jim shrugged, "But if I find out that Merlin knew about this I'm going to kick him in the gronk-nucks then throw him through a tree." His voice rose to a growl.

"Who the heck is Merlin?" Max questioned.

Jim's tail flicked back and forth. He let out a long sigh, "Merlin is the wizard who screwed up my life, then turned me into a troll." His voice slowly rose, "He kept saying 'you were the first _human_ trollhunter, but you were never meant to remain so.' And if I found out that he _knew_ that I was half alien…" Jim snarled and the sound echoed off the canyon walls, making Max and Steel jump. Jim's ears fell, "Sorry…"

"Sounds like this Merlin guy, uh, makes you really mad." Max said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Jim's tail curled and uncurled itself as it swung. He gave a low growl, "He has zero social skills, he's also a real jerk." he snorted.

"Kinda like Forge." Steel smiled.

Jim laughed, "Yeah, kinda like Forge." Jim got to his feet and held out his five fingered hand to help Max up. "Now that I've had a good meal, we can go mess around. You said something about enhancing my abilities with Turbo energy?"

Max took his hand and got to his feet, the touch of his hand was like hard clay, but smooth, his eyes stayed on his hand grasped with Jim's.

"Max?" Jim said, drawing his attention back to his face.

"Yeah, sorry. Just wasn't expecting your hands to be so _soft_." He let go of the blue mit and shook his head. His brothers eyes sparkled with admiration, a small laugh escaped his lips.

"Glad you like them."

"So, Max." Steel interjected, "What are you going to show him first? How to run really fast, or jump really high? OH! How about you show him how to make his eyes glow?" He ranted.

"My eyes already glow, Steel." Jim laughed.

"I know, but then they'll glow even more!" Steel threw his arms around excitedly.

"How about just throwing it?" Max suggested.

Steel sighed. Jim's ears twitched and said, "How do you throw energy?"

Max wiggled his eyebrows, glancing around he spotted his target. It looked like he was going to punch the air, but his hand glowed blue with the energy. As his arm swung what seemed a ball of the stuff flew out of his hand and hit the closest boulder in a puff of smoke.

"Woah, that was awesome!" Jim stepped closer.

"Thanks." Max shrugged, "now you try."

...

Jim watched Max throw a ball of glowing blue energy into a boulder some yards away, hitting it with a dramatic flash. Energy that his brother naturally generated because he was an alien. The same energy Jim supposedly generated, because he was an alien. Well, part alien.

He kinda felt like his life was a lie, but that's fine. Nothing in his life really ever went his way.

Ever.

Max asked Jim to try to repeat the display.

"What?"

"Try throwing some of your Turbo energy." Max rephrased.

"Uh, how?" Jim's ears flicked.

"Just focus on the energy in your body, channel it to your hand. Then use the force of a throwing motion to get rid of it." Max explained.

Jim focused on his hand, and 'focused on the energy'. He stared at his hands hard enough to bore holes right through it.

"Uh, Jim. Are you focusing?" Steel's voice rang.

Jim growled and moved his eyes from his hand to glare at Steel. He quickly threw his arms up and shut up.

"Hm, I wonder if it's because you never learned to use it when it first started manifesting itself." He paused for a thoughtful moment. "How did you channel it so you didn't blow up?"

"Well," Jim put his hand down and his face softened. "I didn't know about it until about two hours ago. So I'm going to say the amulet was the thing keeping me from _blowing up_, as you so gently put it."

"Amulet? Is that the thing you put in your pocket after you busted out of the cell and your armor disappeared?" Max said.

Jim gave a heavy nod, he could feel the weight of his horns. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the small device, and tossed it to Max with the sound of it going through the air. He caught it in both hands and turned it over, the stone inside faced him. The amulet lit up and reflected blue on his face. Steel hovered over his shoulder to look at the amulet.

"Woah." They both breathed out.

Jim chuckled, his tail drifted around behind him and around his legs."That," He pointed to the amulet. "Is the reason my life got better, it also screwed it up."

"How does it work?" Max asked, his face betrayed his cool tone with eagerness.

Jim gave him a toothy grin and without saying a word, held up his hand an the amulet appeared in a flash, no longer in his brothers grasp.

Max looked back at his hands, finding the amulet gone.

"Dude…" Max gaped.

"This is the amulet of Merlin. And…" Jim sighed. "For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command." His body enveloped by armor, the clang of the pieces sounded as they fit to his body. The normal blue smoke, that wasn't magic, evaporated off of him as the magic set him back on the ground.

"That's how you've managed to not blow up… when did you say you got this?" Max said.

"Uh, about a month before I turned 16." Jim said.

"So, about the same time I started generating Turbo energy…"

"That's what dad said." Jim focused on his hand again. The non armored, four fingered one. Max and Steel watched him focus as hard as he could, he snarled then said. "I can make a magic sword appear in thin air, but I can't use my own freking bio-energy?"

Max stifled a laugh, "I don't think that's something to really be complaining about."

"Hey, at least you've never gone critical." Steel added.

Max rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, that's not fun. Wait, how often did you have to wear the armor to not blow up. If I don't link up with Steel every eight hours I go critical."

Jim looked up at the stars, thinking carefully. "Well, I trained everyday for several hours, and then there's the fact that I kept getting attacked at home, and I trained at home too, not just at TrollMarket. But I don't think that I put it on _every_ eight hours." Jim looked back at Max. "I still don't really know how it works though."

"Me neither. Steel?"

"Well, my information is limited, but my understanding is that Jim, your dad, being full Tachyon, can generate it and dispel it naturally. The two of you didn't get all the Tachyon DNA to make it so you would be able to get rid of it like he does." Steel shrugged.

"Ok," Jim nodded like what he said actually registered in his brain. "But how come I can't get it to… I don't know, show up in my hand?"

"Beats me. When I first started generating Turbo energy, it was spilling off of me. Now, I use it to transform the steelsuit."

"Eh Hem?" Steel pretended to cough.

Max rolled his eyes, "Steel uses it to transform the steelsuit." he corrected.

"I'm glad the amulet doesn't have an attitude." Jim smirked.

"Hey!" Steel shouted, "I take personal offense to that!"

"Hey, you've been calling out my weird behavior all night and called my ears big." Jim said.

Steel folded his arms and huffed.

"What Steel?" Max said, responding to nothing, than Max suggested something else. "Show me how you summon the sword."

Jim didn't even have to think twice about it, he just lifted his hand and Daylight appeared in his grasp.

Max stared thoughtfully for a moment, "Ya think?" he said. Again, talking to Steel in his head.

Jim stared at him, his head slightly tilted.

"Ok, try taking off your armor and then pretend like you're summoning your sword."

Jim gripped the amulet and pulled it off his chest, replacing it in his pocket. Then focused again on his hand. Small, almost invisible sparks of blue appeared for a fraction of a second.

"Well, that's something." Max said, sharing a grin with his brother.

Suddenly there was a roar that ripped through the sky.

"We'll practice it more later, for now, we might want to deal with that." Steel pointed at something moving in the distance, toward them.

Jim had moved in front of Max, placing himself between the monster and his little brother. His stance lowered, and his eyes became thin. He looked closer and if he could, he would have palled. It was some kind of troll.

Jim snarled as it came closer.

"What is that?" Max yelled.

"I'm not sure, Jim?" Steel diverted the question.

"It's some kind of troll, I don't know what kind though." Jim growled.

"Steel, let's go Turbo! Strength." Max yelled and Steel planted himself on the other's chest and they transformed.

The beast was almost on top of them, huge, fast, and strong. It was easily a head taller then Jim, if it stood on it's back legs. Otherwise it crawled on all fours. It's limbs were long and thin but muscular, clawed digits, it's color was that of the copper cliffs. It had eight dark glowing orange eyes, but the four on each side were so close together it looked as only one. Something resembling a pair of wings could be seen on it's back, but they seemed too short to do any good. It's tail, looked incredibly dangerous, similar to that of a scorpion, and it's overbite looked unnatural even for a troll.

Jim roared at it, piercing the sky like a mountain lion scream, and it slowed for a half second before charging faster, returning a similar sound, only more venomous.

Max was about to charge it, when he noticed Jim shrinking slightly. Which made Max scared.

Picking up on his brother's unease Jim forced himself to stay, sure he was invading this troll's territory and he should really get the hell out of there, but he couldn't let this thing hurt Max. Re-asserting his dominance with another roar, he charged before it got any closer.

Taking it in a tangle of limbs, somersaulting over the other repeatedly. He tried to pin it, and though his strength was superior, he lacked knowledge of the creature to efficiently stop it. It's tail came out from underneath it and knocked Jim off of it. He snarled in response, shaking himself off.

Max ran up behind him and tried to detain the creature, but was stabbed with the scorpion tail. Orange acid dripped down the front of the steelsuit, still in strength mode.

Jim heard Steel say, "This acidic compound is eating away at the suit, it's compromising its integrity."

_That's not good. Shit, I should have gotten him out of here when my instincts told me to._

"Max! Get out of here!" Jim yelled.

"I'm not leaving!" he bit. Max transformed to flight mode and Steel came off his chest. Max gripped Steel's arms and out of him came blasts of Turbo energy. Shooting the creature from a distance.

The creature didn't like being shot at, it turned around and spun, shooting out of its wings came small brown spikes, knocking Max out of the sky with a painful sounding thwack! Reverting back to the regular steelsuit.

While the creature was distracted, Jim rammed into it at full force. Sending it crashing into the side of a cliff. Jim didn't wait to see if it got up, he ran toward Max and scooped up his and Steel's limp bodies.

Running as fast as he could away from the unknown specie of troll.

Steel came to first, shaking awake in Jim's grasp. "What happened?" he slurred, rubbing his head.

Jim moaned, letting out inhuman sounds to explain literally nothing.

After they were a good mile away and out of its territory, Jim finally came to a stop. He laid Max on the ground.

Steel stared at him for a moment, "He should be fine, he's just unconscious," he said after scanning him.

Jim, crawled around him, a persistent whine in the back of his throat, his tail flicking back and forth. He pushed Max's cheek with his nose, nudging him awake.

Max groaned, "Everything hurts, I don't wanna get up." He said.

Jim let out a long sigh, "you didn't get cut did you?" He thought only of the potential magic poisons there were in that venom.

"No, but the steelsuit took a beating." Steel stated.

Jim's head whipped around and he growled at Steel. "Not talking to you." He turned back to Max, "are you ok?" He asked.

Max nodded and sat up slowly, "Yeah, just have a killer headache…" He said, before being cut off.

Jim lunged forward latching onto Max, his tail wrapped around his waist as Jim nuzzled his little brother. Max, unsure what to do in response, just wrapped his arms around the other. Hugging him tightly.

"That was my fault," Jim said. "We were in that his territory, but my dominance got the better of my instincts." He shook his head, "And you got hurt."

"No. it's not your fault, it was that _thing_, it attacked us first." Max reassured.

Jim still shook his head, "he told me to get out of his territory, but I didn't listen."

"Dude, I'm fine aren't I?" Max said, though slightly uncomfortable. Guys don't show affection often, so having his brother hugging him, and rubbing his face on him was real weird.

Jim, picked up on his unease but didn't mind it. His instincts were too strong to beat down, and Max said that he was ok with him being a troll around him. So, it was fine, right?

"So…" Steel began, "I'm not sure _what_ this is, but Forge wants us back."

Jim let go of Max. "Time to go meet uncle Ferrus." he sighed, and helped Max up.

"It won't be that bad, besides, dad probably told him, and he probably wants to apologize." Max said.

"Although I have a hard time believing that, I should apologize to." Jim said.

"What about Claire?" Steel asked.

"I think it might be better if we let her sleep, magic exhaustion makes her really cranky. And as much as I want to be with her 24/7 it's unrealistic at the least. Also not sure if I want her around him yet." Jim sighed.

"Aright, let's go. It's not far." Max said and started walking, Jim walking next to him and Steel on the other side.

Wanting to keep him close via tail, but not wanting to make him more uncomfortable he asked. "Hey, um, Max?" Jim said as they walked, his ears twitching and his tail drifting dangerously close to Max's arm.

"Yeah, Jim?"

"Um, so this probably sounds really weird…" Jim gripped his horn.

Max looked at his brother, brows furrowed. "Yeah…?"

"Can I… um," Jim stuttered, and his eyes flitted over Max's arm and his own tail.

Max looked confused for a minute, then realization dawned on his face. He touched his arm to Jim's tail, on its own accord snaked up his arm twice. Jim looked confused himself, than smiled shyly. He squeezed Max's wrist, "Thanks."

"Yeah, but can I ask, why?" He puzzled.

"I have to make sure you're safe… so I can protect you. And I know you're a hero, and you can take care of yourself, but my brain is screwed up. And, I've gotta make sure my family is out of danger." Jim said.

"And this makes me safer?" Max laughed, holding up his arm gesturing to Jim's tail.

"Yeesss…" Jim said it more like a question, "I can move you out of harm's way if I need to now. And I'll know where you're at." He nodded.

"Alright."

"It also helps me stay calm, I'm not sure why though." He gave a shaky laugh.

"We should have Berto scan your head, see what's going on in there." Steel said, floating above Jim, tapping his horns.

Jim batted him away, "Yeah, that's not going to happen. Are you always this annoying, _bucket head?_" he asked, using an insult Max had used multiple times.

"Unfortunately for us, yes." Max smiled.

Steel huffed, then darted ahead to the mountain base's front door. Clicking some buttons before the door opened. He hovered next to the door, waiting.

As they passed Jim smiled,"Thank's Steel." He said.

Steel's face changed to an exclamation to a bashful smile as he followed them in.

...

They made their way to the briefing room, Jim's tail still around Max's arm. Kat, Jefferson, Forge, and their dad were standing around a holographic table. Berto was sitting off to the side.

Max was in the steelsuit, no hemet. "Hey, what did you need uncle Ferrus?" He said, scanning his black cast, and other missing arm. He had a death glare set on Jim.

Max glanced up at Jim, who was doing his best not to glare right back, he just smiled and waved, "Hi uncle Ferrus."

The whole room tensed as they spotted Jim. Jefferson paused with a corndog halfway in his mouth, Kat looked like she'd seen a ghost. Berto, who was working on Ferrus' new arm, sighed. One look to his dad told him that they hadn't been told yet. Ferrus glared harder.

Jim realized the same thing, his tail tensed around Max's wrist. He glanced around the room, no one had noticed it yet, so he removed it before anyone did.

Recovering for himself, "Is that not your name? That's what Max keeps calling you." Jim played sarcastic, the others relaxed, if only slightly.

Max sighed in relief, he nudged Jim with his elbow for him to walk forward. "So, everyone who hasn't met him, this is Jim." Max smiled.

"_You might want to ask your dad why he hasn't told anyone yet._" Steel's voice rang in his head.

"We've met." Forge bit out. "Where's your _mate?"_

Jim did his best not to snarl. He forced an angry smile, doing his best to be civil. "She's safe, away from _you_."

Max broke some tension, "So! Dad, why is the angry man, who keeps trying to kill my… Jim, not aware of certain things?" he asked panicked.

Ja'em turned and glared at Forge, before turning back to his sons', "We're waiting for your mom to get here." He said.

As if on cue, Molly walked in. She paused at the sight of Jim, for a moment Max was worried she would freak and attack him, but she didn't.

"And that's why you said not to freak out when I got here?" She pointed at Jim and walked over to Ja'em, a gentle kiss on his cheek.

Jim stared at her for a moment, his head tilted slightly. She smelled like an office; fresh ink, coffee, and paperwork, which is weird. The brothers stared at their father, waiting for him to begin.

Ja'em took a deep breath, "Ok, just so everyone doesn't freak out. Jim could you explain that you weren't always like _this_. Then I'll explain the rest."

Jim nodded, "Yeah, that's probably best, it would be weird." He grinned. Sitting on his calves he began explaining a miniscule amount of information about being the trollhunter. Then continued to the recents. "So, I wanna say two and a half months ago, after finding out that Merlin's tomb wasn't actually a tomb. We brought said wizzard back to Arcadia, and before the eternal night began, he gave me a potion which turned me into this. A half troll."

"Wait," Jefferson said with him mouth full of corndog,"You were human? Before you looked like… this?"

"Well, I thought so, but I guess not." Jim ran a hand up his horns. "That's for him to explain." He gestured for his dad to start.

Ja'em let out a long strained sigh, "Molly, please don't hate me." he said, holding his hands up. "Now, I came to earth about two years before any of you met me. I had a different name back then. James Lake. I was married for about a year and a half, and by the time I left… I had a six month old son." He threw his arms around, the air tense.

"Ok," Molly said. Love still in her eyes, but cautious. "Why are you telling us this now?"

Ja'em, looked at Jim and Max. Pleading them to help.

Jim, of course noticed and came to his aid. He did an over dramatic bow, his tail pretending to tip an imaginary cap. "James Lake Jr. at your service." He smiled. He glanced at Forge, "Sorry for breaking your arm uncle Ferrus." He looked at Molly, her face tortured.

Steel, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, spoke, "Surprise." He said, doing jazz hands.

"Mother of MARS!" Forge gasped.

The last of Jefferson's corn dog fell out of his gaping mouth. Kat's mouth was hanging just as much.

"And you're telling me _now!?"_ Molly exclaimed.

Max stepped forward, "Mom, please don't be mad."

"She's not mad Max." Jim stated.

The McGrath boys turned to Jim, "What?"

Jim stood and looked at Molly, "Right?" She shook her head. "She would smell very different if she were mad." He stated plainly.

"James is right. Just shocked, worried, surprised." She said then turned to Jim, "and smell?"

"It's Jim, actually. But yeah, smell." he shrugged.

"So, everyone, this is Jim. My big brother, he's cooler than all of you combined." Max smiled brightly.

"_Max, you might want to look at Forge's face, he looks like he's about to blow a gasket."_ Steel said in Max's head.

He glanced at his uncle, his face was redder than a tomato. His teeth grit so much he thought his jaw might snap. His knuckles were white, and the blood vein in his forehead looked like it was gonna pop.

He was going to try to say something, his dad was about to say something, everyone was about to say something. And that's when Jim did something that was almost stupid, but it wasn't.

Jim lowered himself, and slowly crawled next to Forge. Everyone watched, confused. The confusion snapped the Commander out of his rage enough to watch. Jim proceed to crouch next to him, he lowered his head, digging his chin into his shoulder. As far as it would go. His horns were pointed up, the furry back of his neck exposed.

Forge, stared at Jim and his strange display, "Wha… what are you doing?"

"I wish Claire was here," Steel said, "She knows all about his weird behavior." Steel stated.

Jim shook his head, standing he snarled. "This means nothing to you."

Silence ensued and Jim walked back over to Max, his tail curling and uncurling, agitated. Max heard Jim growling under his breath, he thought about what he could do to calm his brother's frustration.

On one of his tail's swings toward Max. He subtly moved his arm in its path, so that when it brushed it, Jim's eyes flickered. He looked down at his brother, who held his arm out less subtly this time.

Jim coiled his tail around Max's arm, and released his growl.

All eyes were trained on the two boys, except for Berto, who was still working on Ferrus' new robot arm. No one seemed to want to acknowledge it, but their dad seemed to know what was going on.

Forge broke the silence, "Was that some kind of… apology?"

Jim's head shot to look at him, he nodded.

Forge's face grew ever more confused.

"It means nothing if you don't respond to it though," He tilted his head and watched the Commander, "although, I ought to thank you, uncle Ferrus." Jim forcibly smiled.

"What?" just about everyone said.

"Yeah, had you not shot me, captured me, kept me separated from and held my mate hostage, and gotten it to the point that Dad had to come cast Claire's arm, I never would have found my dad, or Max. Or known I was part Tachyon. So thanks."

With each added accusation, another head turned to glare at the Commander. Jim turned his whole team against him in one complementing sentence. He was fairly proud of himself.

"I can not believe you Forge." Ja'em said.

Kat glared, "Uncle of the year over here."

Jefferson laughed at her joke, pulling a sandwich out of nowhere. He pulled another out, and tossed it to Max. "You want one Jim?" Jefferson asked, trying to be friendly.

Jim held up his hands, "No thank you."

"What in the world could have provoked you to do that Forge?" Molly gasped.

"He _was_ a dangerous threat!" Forge defended

"Correction, I _am_ dangerous. But I'm not a threat, at least not anymore."

"Tell that to either of Forges' arms'." Berto finally said something.

"Hey, I was not the cause of the destruction of his robot arm."

"Cybernetic Limb, if you please." Berto corrected, then turned back to the arm.

"Yeah, what happened to that?" Jefferson asked.

"That would be the lovely lady Claire." Steel stated.

Jim lauged, thinking about how kind and beautiful she was. And also how quickly she turned sour and dangerous when threatened.

"What's so funny?" Ja'em said.

"Oh, just about how quickly Claire can go from kind to murderous in 0.2 seconds flat." Jim chuckled. "And how cute her little nose is when she's angry and it crinkles up." Jim scrunched his nose whilst laughing.

"And they say teenage romance doesn't last." Kat comments.

"So uh, what did Chief do to tick off Claire?" Jefferson questioned.

"He kept calling Jim a thing. Apparently she doesn't like that." Steel said.

"Well, she doesn't like it because of how much it hurts me every time someone calls me a _thing, _or a monster. Fragile emotional state, is what mom calls it. I used to go to school, and I had a normal life, _in practice_ I was human. Now people take one look and run away screaming, OR, attack." He looked at Commander Ferrus.

Everyone once again glared.

"So uh, how did Forge find you?" Jefferson dared.

"Well, Claire and I were out, jumping the messas. When this careless dork had his autopilot on and knocked me out of the sky. Broke Claire's arm, but I took most of the impact from the fall. Afterwards, I was an idiot and left her to go beat his sorry butte." He nudged Max, who was eating his sandwich.

"Idiot because Max obviously beat you to a pulp." Kat smiled proudly.

Max's face turned an undignified shade of red and Steel burst out laughing.

Jim calmly stated, "Idiot because I left her alone," and shrugged.

"What's so funny Steel?" Berto asked.

"Jim kicked my sorry excuse for Turbo Strength butte." Max said.

"Like it was nothing." Steel continued laughing. "He caught his punch, smiled like demon, then he threw us into the canyon wall."

Max rubbed the back of his neck, "Not our best moment."

"Anyways, I went back to Claire. I set her arm and then got shot unconscious. I woke up in one of the holding cells, broke out and found her."

"Wait, you're the reason the cells look like a feral beast was let loose in there?" Jefferson gawked.

He ran a hand up his horn. "Again, sorry. Then Forge blew up the room we were in and I smashed his arm after he held Claire hostage. I got her arm clean, but that's when Dad came in… and he didn't recognize me, but I'd seen many pictures of him and I knew exactly who he was. Only to find that he's an alien, and I am, was, half alien. And that I have a brother, who is also half alien… This has been a very eventful night."

"So, uh Jim…" Molly started, and both Jim's heads' perked up. "My husband Jim, did you know about Jim?" she pointed at troll Jim.

"About him being alive? Yes. About him being a half troll? No." He ran his hand down his face.

"And didn't you worry about him, you know, being half Tachyon?" She pressed, almost angry.

"Well, I didn't even know that Max was going to have my ability to generate turbo energy, so no." he looked at Jim. "Sorry son."

"It's fine, uh, Max's mom, I have something that expels it for me. And it's never once been a problem." Jim tried to reassure.

"You can call me Molly, or mom, if you would like." She smiled, then her face turned sour on adult Jim. "You are very lucky that he's not dead!" she scolded.

Jim leaned over and whispered to his brother, "See, now she's mad, Max."

Steel hovered between the two while the adults talked about how it was fine, and how it wasn't fine. Then asked, "So what does anger smell like?"

"Well, a lot of emotions smell like adrenaline, but it's a mixture of chemicals in the body that are caused by the emotions. As well as body language, heart rate, breathing, and just about everything observable. But mostly adrenaline."

"What does adrenaline smell like?" Max asked quietly.

Jim shrugged, "I have no way to explain that to you." his ears twitched violently, and his tail gently tightened and loosened around his brothers arm. "But this is killing my senses." he whispered before raising his voice. "It's okay though, I'm still alive against all odds, on purpose or otherwise." he smiled a toothy grin.

All heads turned to him.

"Jim, is there anyone still out to kill you that I should know about?" His dad said.

"No, not out for my title at least." Jim thought about it for a second.

"What does that mean?" Kat said surprise written on her face.

"Being the Trollhunter is a job you hold for the rest of your life. Most of the time, your life is relatively short after you pick up the amulet. Unless you're me. In which case, you kill everyone trying to kill you before they can do the same to you. Or, be smart, and turn them against their side."

"You got bad guys to switch sides?" Steel yelled.

"How many people were trying to kill you?" Forge shrieked.

"Yes, I got lots of my enemies to switch sides. And the number of people trying to kill me personally," he counted on his fingers as he focused his tongue came out slightly. "Well lets see, Bular, Strickler, Noumora, Draal, the stalkling, NotEnrique, Gladys, Otto, The Janus Order as a whole really, the hordes of goblins, Angor Rot, Gatto, Gunmars _armey_, the nilogarths, Gunmar himself, blood goblins, Angor Rot again, Claire while she was possessed, then Morgana. And I'm fairly sure some of the ghosts in the void want me dead too. And that's not even bringing into account the curses and poison's i've had dealt my way, as well as people who just wanted me dead in general."

"How are you still alive?" Forge yelled.

"That's what I want to know." Kat said.

"Yeah me too." Jefferson added.

"Oh my word!" Molly gasped.

"I'm so proud of you son"

"That's impressive amigo."

"You just keep getting cooler and cooler." Max smiled.

Jim's ears lowered slightly at the amount of attention he was getting, a bashful smile on his lips. "Thanks guys," he said, releasing his nervous hold on Max's arm, letting his tail sway naturally. He looked at Kat and Jefferson, "So, um I don't know who you two are."

"OH! Sorry, I'm Katherine Ryan, but you can call me Kat."

"And I'm Jefferson Smith, best pilot on base." he saluted with his sandwich.

"You wish!" Kat replied.

"Good to meet you." Jim smiled. "Now, uncle Ferrus…"

"That's commander to you." he snaps.

Jim's eyes dilated to slits for a fraction of a second before he calmed himself. He smiled an evil smile, "Just remember who dis_armed_ you without trying." he snarled.

Tension in the room rose again. And Forge shrunk a bit, although his aggression toward Jim did nothing to help Jim's mood.

"_Hey Max,"_ Steel said in Max's head. "_I think it might be a good idea for someone to get Claire."_

"Good thinking little bud, let's go." he whispered.

Max and Steel hastily the room, Jim watched with a silent moan trying to escape his throat.

...

Molly stepped closer to Jim, he watched her as she examined him, standing still for her to eyes poke and prod. She didn't touch him, just stared.

She looked at his face intently, Jim tilted his head. Curious about what she was thinking.

Jim let out a nervous whine.

"Hey, Molly." Ja'em said. "I think your making him nervous." He chuckled.

Jim nodded and Molly backed off.

The room was eerily quiet, and with all eyes trained on the lone trollhunter.

His dad watched his son's nose scrunch up for a second and shook his head like a dog before he spoke, "Alright, someone's gotta calm down. Because it smells like y'all are taking a math test you didn't study for." Jim stated, "Except for Berto, he studied."

Berto raised his screwdriver, before returning to his work.

Jefferson burst out laughing, "Are you trying to say we smell nervous?"

Jim relaxed slightly at the change in the man's demeanor, "That among other things. I mean, uncle Ferrus' aggression toward me is inviting my _hunter_ side." he rolled his neck and stared at the man, "So if you could _stop_ that would be great." His eyes bugged, he tried to hide the rage coursing behind them.

Nervously, Kat and Jefferson exited their room.

He could sense that Forge didn't like him, he wanted him out of his base and away forever. His constant glaring felt like he was challenging Jim for authority and the right to be here. Unfortunately for him, that's not how humans work. Unfortunately for Forge, that _is _how he worked.

"Look, _Commander_" He bit, "I'm here weather you want me here or not. But if you keep this up, we _are_ going to have problems." He growled. Whether he wanted there to be problems or not, there would be. His instincts would make sure of it.

"Jim, I know you explained some of this to me, but what's going on?" His dad prodded, brows furrowed and tense from the high stress.

Jim's ears flicked against his scruff as small and large footsteps alike entered the room.

"He feels challenged." Claire stated, walking in, next to Max who was just changing to his civies, she now had her small pink backpack. "The aura you're giving off is causing his instincts to be on edge. I suggest you get a grip." She took strides towards Jim and he immediately wrapped her up in his tail pulling her close and crouched down to nuzzle her cheek.

"I think you need to stay with me from now on." Jim moaned nervously, a half smile barely visible. He moved his tail around her arm.

"And you need to calm down." She smiled at him, brushing some stray scruff from his face. "You're scruff's on end."

"I'm sorry, but could you please elaborate?" Forge said impatiently.

Claire sighed and rolled her eyes, returning her now angry gaze to the Commander. "You ever stare an angry dog in the eyes?"

"Pht… no, that would be stupid. It's like challenging it to ohhh… oh."

"Congratulations, you aren't as dense as I thought." Claire patronized, placing her hands on her hips, Jim's tail still firmly around her uncasted arm. "Now," she took a breath. "Jim, I've bought you three nights without an explanation. Not counting tonight, which is almost over."

"Three nights? What do you mean?" Molly asked.

"We're not talking about it, especially with hostiles in the room." Jim taunted darkly.

"Son, com'on. I know you had a rough start with Forge, but you can trust him." His dad said.

Jim had to literally bite his tongue and grit his teeth so he didn't growl or snarl at his dad. After a few tense moments of his growls echoing through the room, he spoke.

"I'm sure you can trust him, but I can't. I can't trust him with things that could put my family… my _troll_ family at risk. All he needs to know, is that for at least the next three nights. I'm going to be chilling with Max and you. If that means I'm gonna be around him, and I'll have to fight my every nerve to accept his unspoken _challenge_, then so be it." He turned to Forge. "Uncle Ferrus, look, I already gave you your second chance. You blew it. But just for family, you get a third."

Jim stood tall, his presence overwhelming the room. The light growl in his chest settled, and he let out a long held breath.

"Here's what I don't understand." Berto spoke up, startling everyone. He was basically invisible sitting in the corner working on the _cybernetic limb_. "Chief, why do you dislike Jim so much?"

"He broke my arm!" He waved the casted arm around.

"Validly," Steel said.

"Yeah, and Max broke Claire's arm. You don't see me challenging him." Jim said flatly.

"He blew up the holding cells."

"That was your own fault," Claire said.

"He beat up Max."

"You beat me up in training." Max stated.

"He… sliced a tank in half?"

"That was you?" Molly asked, trying to stifle a laugh.

Jim nodded, rolling his eyes.

"He… he… he's a troll." Forge nodded as if that made his argument.

"And I'm an alien, you never seemed to have a problem with that." Ja'em said.

"And ouch." Jim feigned hurt, although it was real.

"Fine, I don't have a legitimate reason." Forge huffed, then almost tried folding his arm. "I just… _heskindasortareallyquiteintimadatingandheseemsabittoostrongforjustakidandIfeelthreaened._" He muttered inaudibly and barely cohearnetly.

"I'm sorry what?" Steel said.

"Awe, I'm flattered." Jim smiled. Forge's head perked up, eyes wide with horror.

"You actually heard that?" Forge said in disbelief and pannick.

Jim turned his head and gently ran a finger up his long pointed ears. "I can hear everything. But don't worry, they won't know what you said."

Forge visibly relaxed.

"_If_ you please stop glaring at me. You don't have to worry about any of that, I promise not to hurt you as long as you don't hurt me, my mate, or family." Jim stepped forward holding out his hand. "Deal?" His warm blue eyes shined.

Forge shook it, "Deal."

Everyone around them let out a breath.

Jim, stepped back and lowered into a crowch for Claire to sit on his leg. Now comfortable with the anger in the room gone.

"Now that we aren't trying to kill each other… Claire, wanna tell Jim what you told me on our way back." Max sighed.

Claire tensed on Jim's thigh. "Well, after I woke up, I heard you roaring about an hour ago. So I got a tracking spell from Merlin, on my way to find you I got attacked by some kind of troll. I didn't recognize it, but it was dangerous, and super teritorial. I managed to knock it out with my magic, but then about three more came out of the cliffs. I started running back to where the spell was leading me, apparently back to here." She glanced around. "Max swooped in and saved me just as they caught up to me. Thank goodness too, I'm exhausted." Claire pretend to fall backward, Jim caught her and rubbed the blunt of his horn against her head.

"I'm glad you're alright," he looked at his brother, "Thank you Max."

"Just be glad Steel suggested someone go get her. It's tense when no one knows what to do, or how to make you calm down." He stressed.

"Hostile troll?" Molly looked really confused.

"Hostile trolls," Jim corrected. "Max and I ran into one earlier. If he was just one territorial troll, it could be avoided. Now, if there's a pack, they need to be dealt with. And we'll need more information on it." He ran a hand down his face. He rolled his neck, pleading with Claire.

She threw her hands up in innocence, "It is not my job, _you're_ the Trollhunter. That means contacting _your_ sources, _your_self." She poked him in the chest.

"I know, but there's like a 99.99% Chance that she's with him. And you know that she'll want to talk to me, and you know that she'll know something's off, she can tell when I lie. I'm the worst at keeping things from her." He whined.

"Eh, bro, whatcha talking about?" Max nudged his shoulder.

He looked at all the confused looks around the room.

Jim's eyes met his dad's, "Mom."

Suddenly, Ja'em started choking and coughing.

Jim turned back to Claire, "can't we just ask Blink?"

"Already did," Claire said, she sat up straight, in a mock Blinkey tone, she said. "I haven't the foggiest. You will have to contact Stricklander, he knows more about the trolls of the world then I."

"Ugh…" He drawled out the sigh that turned into a growling snarl.

"So, uh, your mom is dating something you called a changeling? And he might know about this troll?" His dad asked slowly recovering from his coughing fit.

"Strickler was one of my enemies that I got to change sides. He knows more about trolls than most trolls I've met. He also happens to be a few centuries old, so he's gathered a _lot_ of information and such."

"So, about the dangerous troll?" Forge said, Berto fitting the arm to his body.

Jim took a deep breath, "I can't fight them if I don't have any information on it, that would be dangerous and stupid. And I've done enough of dangerous and stupid things to last me a lifetime, so I've gotta call him and ask him about this troll." He pulled out his phone and found that it had no service, no bars, no nothing. He rolled his eyes, "Right, super top secret base, of course your going to block cell service."

"Let me set up a video call…" His dad said.

Before Jim could stop him, Ja'em had taken his phone and had a video call going to Strickler within seconds. Handing the phone back to Jim.

"This is going to be good." Claire smiled, "try explaining this room to Strickler, or your mom, and let's not mention the fact that your dad is here."

Jim panicked and grabbed his horn and stood, Claire sliding off and trying to not laugh at his panic.

"You know you were going to have to tell her sooner or later." Max said.

"Yeah, but I was hoping I wouldn't be able to see her, or her see me, or that the entirety of my new pack would be here for her to interrogate." He flopped on the floor cross legged, losing his grip on Claire.

Then Strickler answered.

"Young Atlas, this is not your typical method of contacting me…" He tilted his head, he looked to be in his car. "Why are you on the floor, and _where _are you? Jim, who are these people?" He got defensive quickly. In the little box that showed what Strickler saw, he saw the bodies but not faces of the others in the room.

Jim quickly got off the floor, "I'll tell you in a second. Mom isn't with you, right?"

The phone's view turned, now facing his mother. Luckily, his dad was out of the frame for right now. "Why? Would it be a bad thing to call your mother?" she smiled.

"Shit!" Jim yelled. His tail whipped behind him.

Her brows furrowed. "Language Jim." She absconded.

The room had a good laugh at that.

"Sorry. Stickler, I've got a question about a new species of troll."

The camera angle turned, and was on Strickler now. "Well, first tell me where you're at, and what it looks like, anything specific."

"Well, we're in a place called Copper Canyon, it's the color of the rocks, like an orange sandstone. It's got long limbs, and a scorpion tail. It shoots spikes and it's venom is extremely acidic, though I'm not sure if it's poison. Eight eyes, but only looks like two."

Strickler's eye were wide, "I sure hope you didn't engage a whole tribe at once."

"You know these trolls?"

He nodded. "Yes, they're Cliff Crawlers. But more commonly known as Crawlers. Their numbers are almost as great as that of a single goblin horde. Did you find some on your journey?"

"Sorta, Max and I ran into one. Then Claire found a few more." Jim stated without thinking.

The camera turned back to his mom, "Who's Max?"

"Sh… FRAKT!"

"Walt?"

"It's not much better language." Strickler laughed. "Glad you've been practicing your trollish, young Atlas."

"Not as much as he should." Claire smiled.

"Anyways, who's Max?" His mom repeated.

"Strickler, how do I defeat these things. I need some information, they might cause a danger to the people that live here. I can't have that." Jim said. Blatantly ignoring his mom.

"Jim, who's Max?" She said.

"Hold a moment Barbara. Jim, first thing you need to know, they can survive in the sun. They can't move in it, but they can survive. It's their coloring, along with the venom. It's their blood."

"Ok, so how do I kill it? Let alone a whole pack. Last time I fought something that could be in daylight I got struck by lightning." he deadpanned.

"I'm sorry you what?" His mom yelled.

"Mom, I'm trying to be the Trollhunter for like five minutes. Please."

"Fine."

"Just like any other troll, use Daylight. Or Eclipse. Just don't get stabbed with its tail, it's a fate worse than Creepers Sun."

"And the spikes it launches out of its wings?" Max stepped into the frame.

"Who is this, young Atlas?"

Out of sight, Steel laughed. "Young Atlas?" He whispered.

"Oh bug off." Jim growled. "Strickler, Mom, this is Max."

"Cool, so where are you? How did you meet?" His mom asked.

_Definitely not in a secret base that's a hollowed out mountain with my alien half brother and alien dad._

"Oh, just at a… private… facility. We ran into Max when Claire broke her arm. Found some old… _friends_ and got her a cast. We were just talking about the troll and deciding how to deal with the tribe when I figured I'd need more information to beat them."

"Why are you lying to me Jim?" her eyes narrowed.

"Wow, I didn't realize she was that good." Ja'em whispered from off screen.

Jim shot his dad a glare, "Really?"

"Barbara, you don't know Jim's lying to you." He sounded exasperated.

"Oh, I know. I always know."

Jim shrunk under her gaze from a couple thousand miles away.

"Mom, I'll call you later. Right now isn't the best time… Please just drop it." His ears drooped, and he gave her the puppy dog eyes.

"Ugh, fine." She folded her arms and huffed, the sound of the car door opening and closing, and, "See you later Walt."

"Alright then, later." He said, "Max, you had a question about the Crawlers?"

"Uh yeah, it's spikes, they knocked me out of the sky and knocked me and Steel unconscious."

"Steel?"

"Also for another time." Jim stated, a growl settled any argument before it started.

"So, sir…" Max began, "Are these… Crawlers, something that need to be dealt with? They haven't been a problem before."

"Please, call me Strickler. And yes, being as territorial as they are. They are now making themselves known to you because they've felt the presence of Jim and the other Trolls. They won't go back to hiding now, seeing as they've been found out. Although they are not quite as conscious as most species of troll, they are incredibly intelligent. They have no pack leader, but will hold their own. Jim, make sure that you get _all_ of them."

"Noted, thank you Strickler." Jim said.

"Wait, what do you mean the presence of Jim and the other trolls?" His dad asked.

"Well, would you look at that!" Jim shouted out of the blue, shoving his dada out of the frame. "I've had enough of my two completely unrelated worlds colliding and… yeah. Bye strickler!" And with that Jim abruptly hung up. Cutting Strickler's questions off.

Claire laughed, "Really Jim?"

"Son, what was that about?"

"Yes, Claire. Really. And would you look at the time! Sun's going to be up soon, as luck would have it. We're nocturnal. Looks like we better be going back to our camp." Jim tried to pull Claire out of the room with his tail. She forcibly pulled him back with her magic and stood him in front of his dad.

"Jim, it's not like Forge is going to go out on a murder spree. And it's not like your dad is going to tell him. He's asking a question, answer it."

Jim dared look back at her, her focused eyes glowing purple. He shrunk and his ears fell, his gaze turned back to his dad.

"So, we're here with a couple hundred trolls. A few changelings and a Wizard… it's fine, we won't cause any trouble. Please don't let Uncle Ferrus know. We need to make it to New Jersey." he said it as fast as he could, like ripping off a bandaid. Tensing to see what his dad would say.

Ja'em blinked a few times, "How did a couple hundred trolls not show up on scanners?" He blanked.

"That's… a valid question. How _did_ you manage that Jim?" Steel asked.

"We're stealthy." He shrugged. "But I wasn't kidding about the fact that we should get back to camp, sun's going to be up soon." He turned to Claire, "And I want to sleep and not have to worry about guarding you." He nuzzled her nose with his own, moving his tail around her wrist.

"Jim, you know you don't have to guard me. And no one here is going to hurt you or me, not anymore." She strained.

"Jim, if you and Claire want you could come back to my place, sleep there." Max offered.

"Does your house have a room without windows and comfortable sleeping space?" Jim asked doubtfully.

Max pressed his lips, "No…"

"Everything you do and say confuses me son, what are you talking about? No windows?" Ja'em asked.

"That, actually isn't something you need to worry about, maybe soon. But not now." Claire said.

Jim stared down at her in disbelief, "What happened to answering his questions?" He whispered.

Claire whispered back, only inaudibly for human ears. "Him knowing that there are other trolls isn't a bad thing. Him accidentally slipping up and saying something to the commander about the one thing that would without a doubt kill you, is not something I'm willing to do yet."

"Yeah, what she said." Jim stated, being an idiot and completely forgetting only he heard her.

Claire facepalmed so hard.

"Claire, is your head ok?" Steel asked.

Claire nodded.

"What did she say. I didn't hear anything." Max said.

"That's because she was speaking on frequencies to low for humans to hear. She's speaking on a frequency that he's specifically attuned to." Steel stated.

"So, what did she say?" Their dad asked.

"Oh, that's none of your business. Something about what Max and Jim talked about earlier."

Ja'em rolled his eyes, "Of course." He sighed.

"But, we really should be going, Claire's been exhausting her magic all night. And, honestly, I want some alone time with my mate like we initially planned, before all… _this_." Jim gestured to everything around him.

"Alright, are you sure you'll be safe with all those Crawlers?" his dad asked.

"Jim can hold his own, trust me dad." Max smiled. "Wait till you see him fight."

Jim and Claire walked part way back to the cave, and when the sun started creeping over the horizon, they ran.

They got to the cave just before the entrance was bathed in sunlight.

"That was too close." Jim huffed.

"Agreed." Claire said.

They made their way to one of the smaller split-offs in the cave where they made camp, on their way they ran into Merlin.

"So, young Trollhunter, did you find tonight to be something quite… Alien?"

Jim lost it, he snarled once, gripped Merlin by the collar and spinning him around, threw him across the massive cave the size of a football stadium into the wall. Landing with a moan and an undignified cry of pain. Jim roared, making the walls shake and the sound echoed through the cave.

"I'm going to run him through in the evening." Jim growled.

"Yeah, that sounds appropriate." Claire nodded, "But for today, let's get some sleep."

Normally Jim would be standing on guard with the events of the day, but he was too exhausted and collapsed on his sleeping bag and quickly feel to sleep.

Claire laughed at his slumped state, and curled herself in the crook of his body. His tail, consciously or not, pulled her closer to him, wrapping around her waist.

She fell asleep with his fingers laced, his tail holding her secure, and a gentle purr vibrating in her mate's chest.

* * *

Please Review!


	4. Chapter 4

HEY! Long time to read. These chapters take much longer to write, you know, because they're like... forever long. Just look at the word count.

I want to thank you as always for your wonderful reviews. And to anyone who Favorited and followed since my last chapter, you're awesome.

I don't own stuff, Enjoy.

_Let the chaos ensue._

* * *

Chapter 4

* * *

Jim woke with Claire curled up next to him, a happy way to start off the night. She was still sound asleep, exhausted from the events of last night.

Then all at once, Jim remembered what had taken place in the wake of what was supposed to be a normal night. The painful crash landing, Claire's broken arm. Getting shot, and the prison cells. Finding Claire, getting attacked, Finding his dad, learning his dad was an alien, _and _he had a half-brother who just happened to be half alien too.

The events leading up to that and the sheer coincidences were almost comical. Almost.

Checking the time, he realized the sun was almost down, he wanted to spend more time with Max. He set a purr in his chest, and nudged Claire. Trying to get her to wake up.

He propped himself up on his elbow, and licked next to her ear. "Claire," he whispered. Then he licked her again, cleaning some dirt and sweat off her face. "Claire, if you don't get up soon I might end up giving you a bath." He chuckled, then continued licking her forehead in attempts of cleaning her.

Drowsy, she moaned, "good, I haven't had one in like a week." She rolled over and smiled up at Jim as she propped herself up.

"Well, can it wait a bit longer? I wanna go find Max." Jim's smile was giddy and child-like in a way Claire hadn't seen it in a long time.

"Of course it can wait," She smiled, "Now let's go find him."

Jim smirked and as he got up, helping Claire up as well, his tail flicked around hitting his leg and the cave wall and just about anything else with excited thumps. Jim looked down behind him, "Would you stop it?" He glowered at his tail. "I haven't had this much trouble with it since I got the armor off."

Claire grinned down at it, "You know. I think it's wagging" She laughed as Jim's scoul deepened.

"Of course it is." He sighed and pulled his hand down his face. "Com'on, let's get out of here before Blink has a chance to question why I tossed Merlin like a discus into the wall." Jim grinned slightly. "He's going to be _pissed_."

"You think Blinkey's going to be pissed, think about Merlin."

"I don't care what Merlin thinks. Com'on, let's go."

The couple walked through the cave, in the shadows avoiding any attention from anyone really.

Once outside, Claire realized they'd missed something painfully obvious. "We didn't even get his number." she laughed.

Jim rolled his eyes, "That is something that sounds like I would do. But I can still find him." Jim scented the air and smiled, "He's got one of the strongest most unique scents ever, and now that I think about it. He kinda smells like me."

"Makes sense, where is he?"

Jim shrugged and gestured with his head, "in the city. You bring the…"

"Glamor Mask? Yup." She smiled and pulled off her pink backpack, handing him the Mask.

He bent down a gave her cheek a small lick, "Thanks, you're the best. Now c'mon, let's go freak the crap out of him!"

Claire climbed on his back, tail securing her before they ran, stopping just outside city limits. Jim slipped the mask on as they entered the city.

"Man I hate big cities." He snarled.

Claire gave a small laugh, "Shhhh, no growling. You're human." she patted his soft hair where his horns usually sat.

Jim laughed, taking her hand away from his head kissed her hard on the lips. "That. Has never been true." He said, a sad smile on his lips as he pressed his forehead against hers before pulling away and smelling the air again.

"Even if you never were, I still love you." Her eyes soft and caring as she watched her very _not human mate_ track his _not human_ brother.

"He's close." Jim smiled skipping in the direction Max was, "Com'on, com'on, let's go!"

Claire smiled laughed, running after Jim. Who was running at an incredibly slow pace, and she still struggled to keep up.

They came around the corner to a diner, and saw Max waiting just outside. Glancing around for someone, talking out loud to no one… He was talking to Steel. And Max was right, he did get a lot of weird looks. Jim listened to the one sided conversation as Claire came up behind him, panting for air.

"How did we forget something like that?"

"I am not!"

"Well, it's kinda hard to think with _two_ voices in my head. Bucket head!"

"I already had plans with Sid and Kirby, and I can't go bailing on them."

A breath, "Yeah, and it's not fair to them when I do. Besides, it's just dinner. Then we'll go find Jim and Claire." he gave a long tired yawn.

More strange looks from passersby, Jim whispered to Claire, "I've got a great idea. And it's going to be hilarious. Sit tight here." he grinned before molded his face into one of indifference. Then walked up to Max.

"Oh my gosh dude, did you sleep at all last night?" He said.

Absentmindedly, Max answered. "Not really." Then he turned to Jim a bit confused.

"Well, it's too bad you aren't nocturnal. Because then you could just sleep during the day, and all those late night ventures in hero-ing wouldn't be so draining." Jim said.

Max paled, "I'm sorry. What are you talking about?" 'He fails at covering,' Jim thought.

Jim lowered his voice and leaned forward, "You and Steel. Secret identity, late night rescues, saving the world. Superhero stuff." Jim smiled then glanced around the city innocently.

"I...I don't know what you're talking about." Max defended and crossed his arms.

Jim could hear Claire laughing hard from around the corner. He had a hard time himself keeping a straight face.

"Sure you do."

Max's face got slightly angry, and panicked, and all sorts of other things. The whole spectrum of emotions.

"You know, N-tech, Maxsteel, the whole ultralink invasion. You're an alien." Jim listed. "Well, half alien."

The look Max gave, pure dumbfounded horror, was enough to push Jim over the edge and he lost it.

He laughed so hard people on the sidewalk pulled their children away from the guy doubled over holding his stomach from laughing so hard. He could barely breathe.

Now Max just looked confused, "I'm sorry, do I know you? And Steel, why are you laughing?"

"I'm offended Max, you don't recognize me?" Jim said after gaining some composure.

Max shook his head.

Jim motioned for Claire to come around the corner, "Man, Claire, can you believe it? He doesn't recognize his own brother." His eyes sparkled.

Realization struck, "Jim?" Max looked almost like he went into shock.

Claire moved her hand to cover her mouth, hiding her laugh. "This was too funny." She smiled.

"How, you look… human." He said.

Simultaneously, "**Magic**" Jim and Claire said.

"Of course… Steel you knew?"

The small robotic alien poked his head out of Max's bag, "Of course I knew, I have to keep track of your turbo energy, so in turn, I've been able to keep track of any turbo energy in the area. Jim is the only other one that gives off the same amount as you, except for your dad." A smiley face appeared on his face before slipping back in the bag.

"And you couldn't have told me?"

"Jim had the perfect opportunity for a great joke, I wasn't going to spoil this once in a lifetime opportunity from him." Steel's voice came from the bag "Oh, also… Incoming."

"What…" Mas started.

"Hey Max." A blonde came starting up, an odd kid in a beanie following behind.

"Hey, Max what's up man?"

Max jumped out of his skin, "Hey! Sid. Kirby…" He rubbed the back of his neck, "What are you guys doing here?"

Jim and Claire both facepalmed, and Jim heard Steel sigh and facepalm too.

"Uh, we're going to have dinner. At the diner?" the girl pointed at the door to the restaurant.

"Right. That's right. So…" He paused. Turning his attention between the two groups. "Uhh…"

The boy, Kirby, spoke. "Hey Max, these new friends?" He walked passed Max, "You guys just move here?"

Claire smiled, "No, just passing through and visiting Max."

"Cool, well I'm Kirby." He smiled.

"And I'm Sidney."

"I'm Jim, and this is my girlfriend Claire." He paused for a moment before Max took over.

"Actually, Jim is my half brother." Max said proudly.

"Wow, really? I didn't know you had any siblings." Sidney said.

"Neither did we." Jim laughed.

"Bad timing, Babe." Claire said.

"Noted."

"Well, did you want to join us for dinner?" Sidney asked.

"YES!" Claire blurted out, before slapping her hands over her mouth. "I mean… I would love to have something other then… wild game."

Jim gave a small whine, "I thought you liked my cooking."

"I do," She said, before whispering. "I just haven't had something not forged or hunted for over a month." She whispered.

"Well, this diner is great. You guys will love it." Kirby stated.

Max smiled and led them in, holding the door for everyone. They sat down at a large corner booth, Max sitting next to Sidney and Kirby next to her on the end. On Max's other side, Jim then Claire.

The weightress came up and took their orders, Claire got a sandwich and a salad with some soda. Things she hadn't had access to while traveling with Jim. Sid and Max both ordered some ribs, Kirby ordered chicken strips and Mac and Cheese (Yes off the kids menu). And Jim dared to order. "I'd like an extra rare steak. Like, extra, **extra**, rare." He said, trying to emphasize that he wanted it barely cooked at all. In truth he didn't want it anywhere near the grill, but he couldn't tell that to the weightress.

"Alright, I'll have those out for you soon." She smiled and walked away.

Max wasn't sure how to feel. His best friends and his brother were on either side of him. It was really weird to see how _human_ Jim was acting. He didn't know what to say, why was this so hard?

"So," Sid started, "are you liking Copper Canyon so far?"

Jim took a deep breath, "Uh yeah. Just, ran into a lot of people I didn't expect to see." He smiled, pulling a face that said completely innocent.

"Woah," Kirby spattered as he noticed the cast on Claire's arm. "What did you do to get that?"

Jim choked on his water, and it sputtered slightly out of his mouth. Claire patted his back, trying to help him breathe again. Max stiffened considerably, taking a sip of his own drink trying to avoid any eye contact.

"On our second night in town I got hit by a sleep deprived driver." Claire stated simply, no added information, just straight and simple. And not to far from the truth.

"_Max, you've gotta learn how to make excuses like that off the top of your head."_ Steel's voice rang.

Max, nodded to himself. Once Jim was finally able to stop coughing, he spoke. "So, I heard about you guys having your own superhero in town. What was it… Maxsteel?"

Max internally facepalmed, "You have no idea what you've done." he muttered. He knew Sid and Kirby didn't hear it. But he knew Jim did. Jim smiled slightly and winked at Max.

"Yes. He's great. He's saved me like a hundred times!" Sidney began.

"_Although we wouldn't have to save her if she would just run __**away**_ _from the danger instead of __**toward**_ _it."_ Steel sighed.

"True that." He stated, a double answer.

"He's the coolest!" Kirby said. "We've even help him out sometimes. He said that we saved his life!"

Max tried to hide his face behind his hand.

"Really?" Claire asked, feigning curiosity.

"Yeah! And during the Makano invasion, we hijacked one of those N-Tech tanks that was empty and totally helped demolish that alien jerks forces!" Sidney said proudly.

Max subtly shook his head. Jim snorted as if he heard something funny.

"_I figured out that frequency thing, Now I can talk to Jim too. I told him that their really just nucinces when we're trying to fight."_ Steel said.

Jim leaned forward on the table, "So, what do you guys know about Maxsteel?" Max could practically see Jim's tail and ears twitching. Even if he did look completely human.

"Just that he's the coolest, most awesome, hero ever! In the whole world. In the whole galaxy! In the whole, universe...ity!" Kirby declared loudly.

"And that he's saved the town and everyone in it, like a hundred times over." Sid added.

"I guess he's a pretty cool guy." Max said.

Sidney scoffed with a smile, "How would you know Max, you're like, never around when he is."

Steel sighed and rolled his eye from the comfort of Max's bag under the table.

"So you don't know if he's like a human or a robot?" Claire added, obviously in on some bit with Jim.

"Well, Maxsteel is two people… You've got Max and Steel. Max is a human. And Steel is a little robot." Sidney explained.

Jim and Claire paying rapt attention, even if they already knew all of it. Making Max concerned.

"What are you getting at bro?" Max asked cautiously.

"Well, back in my hometown, there was this kid. Who was also kinda a hero, his friends were his team and they gave him invaluable support. Saved his life on countless occasions. I'm just wondering why Maxsteel doesn't have the same."

Max gave an off glance at Jim.

"Oh, he does." Kirby began again. "He's got the whole N-Tech armey at his command. And all of his sick turbo modes!"

"_I wish Max had N-Tech under his control."_ Steel said to both Max and Jim.

(If it's underlined, Steel is talking to Jim, If it's _italics_, Steel is talking to Max, If _both_, then both.)

"Maybe, Maxsteel just doesn't want his friends in danger." Max said nonchalantly.

"So, your saying that he's in charge of the whole… N-Tech?" Claire asked. 'I wonder if she's an actress, she should be and actress.'

The more embarrassed he got, the further he sank down into his seat. Until finally…

"Here's your food guys." The weightress came out with several trays of food. Everyone thanked her as she went back to serving other customers.

Glancing around Sidney exclaimed, "Oh my gosh. Jim, I don't think that you should eat that. I know you said rare. But that looks like it was barely cooking long enough to get warm!"

Jim looked down at his plate disappointedly, but not for the reason Sidney thought. The slab of meat was oozing with raw juices on the plate, covered in as jus. The sides were seared to a pink brown. Overall, it was too cooked.

"Well, I should at least try it…" Jim cut off a piece and took a bite, nearly gagging. He at least had the decency to spit the bite of meat into his napkin. He coughed again, and wiped his tongue subtly along the napkin, probably enjoying the taste of that more. "Nope Sidney, you're right. Definitely not edible." He placed the napkin on his plate and shoved it forward.

Claire glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, savering her own food.

"We could have them take it and cook it more." Sidney suggested.

Jim glanced down at the inedible meat, "Uh, there is an entirely different problem at play with this. I'll be fine."

"Uh, Claire, why does it look like you haven't eaten a sandwich in months?" Kibey asked.

"Probably because, I haven't eaten a sandwich in months. Or soda… ohhh how I've missed soda." She said with longing.

"Uhhh, ok? So, Max, how did you find out you had a brother?" Sidney asked.

The three froze, then Jim laughed lightly. "You see, that would involve telling." He waved his fork around and pointed it at the two, "And for some reason, Max doesn't want to tell."

"Tell what?" Sidney looked confused.

"Yeah man, what are you talking about?" Kirby added, looking more confused than normal.

"I mean, I would tell you but it's not my secret to tell. And my secret would have you running for for safety." Jim grinned.

Claire backhanded him in the arm, "Jim!"

"Yes, _kriah?_" He turned and smiled at her, his words making her blush.

"_What did he/you call her_?" Steel asked.

"Kriah?" Sidney questioned. "I thought your name was Claire."

"It is, he just called me beautiful." Claire smiled.

"Awe." Sidney, cooed.

"Dude, that's so cool. Where are you from?" Kirby asked.

"Yeah, what language is that?" Sidney pressed.

"Well, I have three different nationalities. I don't know if the third has a separate language, but I can speak english. And I'm learning… the other one." He paused. " Max and I share our dad, and my mom…" Jim sighed, running his hand through his hair, though Max felt like he was trying to grab his horn. Jim looked frustrated with it. "You know, that would be telling too."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about your dad though. Must have been hard to come here and meet Max just to find out your dad was gone." Sidney said solemnly.

"I'm sorry, I saw my…"

Max hand to think quickly and did the only thing he could do to get his brother to shut up. He stomped on Jim's foot.

Jim let out a healthy snarl and sent daggers to his younger brother.

Sidney and Kirby looked like they'd jumped out of their skin, staring cautiously at Jim.

"What was that for!" He growled.

Max smiled, "That would involve telling."

"Hardy har har, your so funny." He leaned over and whispered to Max, "you know I'm not actually wearing shoes right?"

"Oh, sorry."

"So Max, I was thinking maybe we could go hiking." Claire said.

"That sounds like fun." He nodded.

"I know a great place you could go!" Sidney said.

"Really, where?" Jim said, human face, and human persona still intact. Somehow.

"The old copper mines."

"But what about the copper squatch?" Kirby asked, now shaking from fear.

Max rolled his eyes, "com'on guys. You know that's just a myth."

"And so are trolls." Jim grinned, and Max thought he could see his large toothy grin. Just by imagining it.

"And changelings, goblins, gnomes. Those are totally myths." Claire said sarcastically while nodding.

"Or Crawlers." Steel said verbally from under the table.

"What? Who was that?" Sidney asked, looking around.

"That would also be telling." Claire said innocently.

Max kicked his backpack, "This telling thing is getting old." He said.

"Agreed." Sidney said, leaning back from her empty plate and folding her arms.

"_You know, I think Jim's right. You should tell them. You said it yourself, you hate keeping being Maxsteel from Sid, Kirby and Butch._" Steel said.

Jim nodded at Steels statement. "Sidney, Kirby, did you want to go hiking with us?"

"Isn't it a bit late to go hiking? Wouldn't you rather go when it's warm and the sun is shining."

"About as much as I'd like to die." he deadpaned.

Claire laughed at his side, "be nice Jim." She turned to Sid and Kirby. "It's night hiking, it's a lot of fun. Plus, the moon is pretty much full, so their will be plenty of light."

"Alright sounds like fun."

"As long as we don't go near the copper mines." Kirby shivered.

Jim and the others walked out of the restaurant.

"Hey, we can take my truck out to the canyon," Max said.

"You go ahead, I'll meet you out there. Claire to you want to ride with me or go with Max?"

"I'll ride in the truck, and I'll see you there." She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Hey Jim, you aren't going to flip out and destroy stuff this time are you?" Steel asked.

Jim whispered back, quiet enough for the small robot to hear. "No, she's safe. And not in any danger. Plus, I'm going to be following you guys."

"Cool, have fun running."

They piled in the Max's tuck and Jim waved as they drove away, before taking off around the block and running between backalley's to avoid being spotted running at inhumane speeds. Finally getting to the edge of town and into the cliffs. He had to push it a bit to keep ahead of the truck and out of sight of the teens.

It didn't make sense to Jim, why didn't Max want his friends to know who he is. When he clearly wanted it so bad. Oxymoron, I know. If it wasn't for Toby and Claire, he'd be dead… he couldn't actually count how many times. As well as covering, but if he had his mom, dad, and uncle all in on it then they could do the covering.

Max had said something about keeping them out of danger. Makes sense, but the secret… must drive a wedge between him and his friends, especially Sidney. He had a thing for her, and so does she. Maybe him and Claire could push them together, just more subtle then they did with Barry and Iris.

Jim landed on a large plateau, he honestly looked really weird perched like a troll while looking like a human. Claire once compared him to a feral child. She wasn't far off.

The truck pulled up and they climbed out. Max sat in his truck for a minute and he saw Steel disappear into his chest with a bit of blue smoke before he got out.

"So, where is Jim meeting us?" Sidney asked.

That was his que.

"Hey guys, up here!" He stood, and waved his hand in the moonlight.

"Dude, how did you get up there?" Kirby yelled.

"I climbed." Jim took a few steps back and took a running jump off the edge of the plaute, the two newcomers screaming for him to stop and just yelling in general. The plaute was less than twenty feet up, but still enough a regular human would get seriously injured.

He landed quietly, and just to make them feel better, did a little role before rolling instantly to his feet. And continuing his walk up to them, horrified expressions and all.

Jim walked passed them up to Max. As he passed them he said, "What's wrong guys. You look like you just saw a crypted jump off a cliff and walk up to you." He laughed and gave Max a bro hug.

"Jim, how did you find me in the middle of the city?" Max asked, Kirby and Sidney were too shocked to notice.

Jim tapped his nose, "You have one of the most distinct scents I've ever encountered. You weren't hard to pick out. You practically radiate pure energy."

"You've memorized my scent?" Max gave a shaky laugh.

Jim nodded.

"He has everyone in his pack's scents memorized. You think he's not going to have you memorized too?" Claire said, wrapping her arm around Jim's waist. Jim put his arm around her, then nuzzled her cheek with his nose.

"I'm going to be worse than an overprotective parent. Sorry."

"Really?" Max said.

"Yeah, can't help it though. I'll try to not to though, little brother."

Max rolled his eyes, "Uh, Sid, Kirby. Are you guys alright?"

The two turned around, "You just jumped… from up there?"

"How are your legs not broken?"

"Why would you even risk that?"

Sidney and Kirby listed off.

Jim smiled, "I did it because I wanted to. Yes I jumped from there. And as for how, that would be telling."

"Alright, we're burning moonlight. Let's get going." Claire said.

The group walked around the canyons just talking about trivial nonsense.

"Hey guys," Jim said. "This may sound totally lame, but we should play hide and go seek"

The others glanced around and then Claire said, "Jim, that's like the most unfair game ever. You would either never be found. Or find everyone in under a minute!" Claire laughed.

"I'm taking that as a challenge." Sidney said.

"Sounds fun." Kirby chimed.

"_Claire's right. This is going to be super unfair for everyone, especially if you were able to find Max in the middle of the city… but this is going to be so funny_."

Max and Jim laughed at Steels comment.

"Something funny?" Kirby asked.

The brothers nodded, "We've got a mental link and we can talk to each other through our minds." Jim said.

"I don't believe you." Sidney said. "Prove it."

"Alright, Sidney. Whisper a number in my ear. Any number." Max said, playing along with Jim's game.

Sidney cupped her hands round his ear and whispered a large number.

Steel relayed it to Jim.

"128,963." Jim said.

The look on sidney's face was priceless. "How is that even possible?"

"We're just both so messed up we can hear the same thing." Jim smiled and shrugged.

"Dude. That was sick." Kirby said, wearing his usual blank stare.

"Anyways. Jim, you should have a specific order that way it's not too easy." Claire smiled.

"Fair enough. Kirby, Sidney, Max, then Claire." Jim said.

"No." Sidney said. "You have to find me last. Because the person who is found last gets to go next. And I am going to find you!" She said proudly.

"No you won't, trust me. But sure, Kirby, Max, Claire, Sidney. And when you are looking for me, you only have ten minutes, otherwise we'll be here all night." Jim said. He sat down where he stood, crossing his legs resting his hands on his knees and closing his eyes. "You've got five minutes to hide, and you can go as far as you want. Go."

They all ran in separate directions, except Claire. She walked up to Jim and flicked his cheek with her tongue and said, "Go easy on them babe." Before running away.

Jim called after her, still sitting relaxed, "Not a chance, _kriah_." he laughed and waited.

After he'd counted to five minutes, slowly and patently, he stood up and started a stopwatch on his phone.

Without turning his head he pointed to a small pile of boulders, "Kirby, you didn't even try."

The boy's head popped out of the rocks. "Awe man! How did you find me?"

"You need a shower." Was all Jim said before running to find Max.

Max was a bit further out, hiding in a small crevice in a messa, using turbo stealth mode. Jim walked into the crevice pulling Max out by his arm.

"If you get to use your powers I get to use mine." Was his defense.

"One, their not powers, their my natural abilities. Two, I don't care. And Three, Kirby needs to take a bath or something." Jim wafeted his hand in front of his nose. "Now change back if you really don't want them to know your secret."

Jim ran off and easily found Claire, she wasn't really hiding. She sat atop a large boulder and sat proudly. "There's no point in trying to win at this, so I thought I'd just wait here for my troll in shining armor." She smiled.

"Jump down, princess." Jim laughed. And Claire jumped right into his arms, catching her with ease. And said, "well sorry to disappoint, but the humans present would freak. Can you settle for a kiss?"

Claire sighed and rolled her eyes, and before Jim set her down she kissed him on the lips. Jim pushed into the kiss before Claire pulled away, leaving Jim with a small whine in his throat. "Now go find that girl and show her who's boss."

"Alright. The others are that way," Jim pointed. "Sidney's not too far away. And we'll be back in a few minutes to start the next round, and that's going to last a while."

Claire slid out of Jim's arms, "Go get 'em."

Jim ran following Sidney's scent, which smelled like magazines and perfume… He came to a halt when he found a shallow cliffside covered in dozens and dozens of small caves. He laughed out loud, "piece of cake." He said to himself.

He ran up to one about halfway to the top, and off to the right. He poked his head inside a hole about the size of a refrigerator, and saw Sidney's baffled face.

"It hasn't even been three minutes since you started looking!"

Jim pulled out his phone, checking the stopwatch. "Two minutes and forty seven seconds. Com'on, the others are waiting to start the next round." He helped Sidney out and they walked back.

"How did you do that?!"

"Hmmm, let's just say. I'm really good at hunting." They rounded a corner of the next rock formation and found the others waiting.

"Alright, so because we don't want to be here all night. Jim, I've set up a boundary that you can't go past. And Sidney has ten minutes to find you. Max, Kirby and I aren't going to play." Claire summarized.

"Why do you think I won't be able to find him?" Sidney asked, as if hurt.

"Because, he's the ultimate stealth master." Max said.

"And because his skills are basically inhuman." Claire added.

"Because they said so." Kirby said.

"Alright. You close your eyes for 30 seconds. I'm guessing the boundaries are lines in the sand?" Claire nodded. "You have ten minutes to find me."

"30 seconds?" Sidney asked with disbelief.

"I'm really fast. Now close your eyes. All of you."

Everyone did. Except Max and Claire.

Jim whispered on the frequency Steel was attuned to. "Steel come with me."

Steel flew out of Max's chest and went ever with Jim.

Sid was at 15 seconds. Then Jim took off at high speeds with Steel on his tail, he jumped up to a messa and scaled the cliff the rest of the way up. And sat up top, watching Sidney.

When she finished counting she looked around and ran off in a random direction.

"Hey Steel, have Max set a timer on his phone." Jim said quietly.

A pause, "Done. So, why up here?"

"Because, she would never look for me up here. If it were a real challenge, then I'd be moving around, or actually trying and hiding. Claire or Max might be a challenge, but Sidney doesn't know anything about me."

"You are quite clever. But why did you want me to come with you."

"I wanted to ask you and Max, why doesn't he want to tell his friends who he is?" He whispered.

Steel gave a thoughtful hum. "Max still has a lot of enemies, he thinks that if his identity gets out. They may be able to find out and they'll use his friends against him. Or that they'll try and help him. And their not trained, and they don't have any super charging bio-energy to help them out."

"And what does he say?" Jim asked, watching Sidney run around ragged. Bending over and panting for breath.

"_Max, Jim wants to know why you don't want Sid, Kirby, and Butch to know you're Maxsteel_."

Max said some words, Jim couldn't make them out from the distance. Claire and Kirby were talking about food. "Well?"

"He says that he wants to keep them out of danger. As much as he'd like for them to know. Because he's always running off to help as Maxsteel. And they are left hanging, being ditched, blown off, or flaked on."

"So why doesn't he tell them?"

"He doesn't know."

"Tell him that's a lame answer."

"_Jim says you need a better excuse…_He said, 'how would I even tell them? Not that I'm going to'." Steel said in a mock Max voice.

"Uh… next time there's danger. Make a small show of it, and be like. I've got to go, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner." Jim shrugged. Sidney was still running around. Running along the line drawn in the sand. Looking around piles of boulders and such.

"He says that's ridiculous."

"So is being a half alien, If he doesn't like hiding it. He should tell them. All my friends and family knew I was the trollhunter before I got trolled. And they still don't really act comfortable around me. At least he acts human."

A small ringing resignated around the canyon walls as Max's alarm went off.

Sidney yelled as loud as she could, "Alright. Jim, I give up! You can come out now."

Jim laughed, He had Steel hold on to his back to hide and climbed down the messa, casually walking up to the group. Sidney didn't even see him climbing down.

Jim stood inconspicuously in front of Max so Steel could link back up with him.

"Where even were you?" She gasped.

"Ah, that would be telling… JK, I scaled the cliff over there." Jim pointed to the 40 foot cliff.

"You climbed that. In 30 seconds?" Sidney asked with disbelief.

Jim nodded. "It helps that I basically live outside." he shrugged.

"Max, your brother is unbelievably cool." Kirby said.

Claire sauntered up to him, "He is, isn't he?" Claire smiled.

Jim wrapped his arm around her, "So, what now? Tag?"

"That's even less fair, Jim." Max said.

"Oh come on, I'll run slow." He smiled, "I have to, otherwise it would be telling."

"If you bring up this _telling_ thing again I'm going to smack you!" Sidney burst out.

"I've been shot six times in under a two day period. You think getting smacked is going to do anything?" Jim deadpanned. "And getting shot is far from the worse that's happened to me."

"So… Tag sounds fun." Max said trying to step away from the dark and creepy vibe his brother and Claire often seemed to give off.

Claire pecked Jim on the cheek, "Tag. You're it." She smiled and ran off. The other teens ran off in other directions, all staying within sight of each other.

They ran around, Jim let himself get caught easily, but tagged a different person seconds later. They ran till everyone was panting and out of breath. Jim, was hardly winded.

They sat on the dirt just chilling, then Sidney remembered a detail left out from earlier.

"Jim, what other nationalities are you. You said you and Max shared one because of your dad. So what others, they came from your mom, right?"

"Well, my mom's just American. Our dad is… from a place that doesn't exist anymore. And the third is one that kinda just changed me, and it's a part of me now, that's the one I'm learning their language."

"Your answers are vague, and not even answers" She glared.

"Well, maybe Max will tell you about our dad's home. Someday." Jim leaned back on his hands, Claire at his side.

"How are you like, so cool?" Kirby asked.

"I haven't done anything remotely cool since you met me." Jim said.

"Or anything out of the ordinary, which is impressive for you." Claire said, placing her hand on top of Jim's.

The non trollhunters all let out long yawns, "man what time is it? It's getting freezing." Sidney said. Glancing over at Max for his jacket.

Max looked down at his jacket and back to Sidney, Jim whispered to Steel. "What's wrong with him?"

"The jacket's a hard light hologram. It's not actually there." He answered. Sidney didn't look all that happy… that's why they weren't boyfriend girlfriend.

Kirby looked up at the bright moon. "Man what time is it?"

"It's around midnight." Jim said. Not bothering to look at his phone. His internal clock knew the time if he was outside.

"Man, we better get back, it's late." Sidney said, standing up and stretching.

Max sighed, and eventually everyone followed suit. They headed back to Max's truck, Jim had his arm around Claire, feeding her his body heat.

Max tried to do the same to Sidney, but she smacked his hand away and just rubbed her goosebump covered arms.

The truck was in view, the moon was bright, and all of the sudden, Jim had shivers run down his spine and his every nerve buzzed. He heard the steps of several four legged creatures making haste in their direction.

He whipped his head around, and saw them. A group of crawlers. Claire saw them too. The other three were in front, and didn't see the danger.

Jim immediately started growling, and snarled, "Max! The Crawlers!"

Max turned around, jumping at the sound Jim produced. So did Sidney and Kirby.

Max paled, "What?!"

"They're out of their territory. I made sure to stay out of it, but they're crossing bounds." Jim growled.

Sidney finally saw them and screamed. Jim gripped his ears and snarled loudly.

"Wha...what are those things?!" Kirby yelled.

Claire was trying to help Jim recover from the loud high pitch sound. "Jim are you…"

He cut her off, "Max, get them out of here." he said, standing up. Trying to ignore the ringing in his ears.

"No, you can't fight them alone. You'll…"

"MAX!" Jim roared. "Get your friends, and my mate, out of here. NOW!" Jim pushed Claire into Max's arms.

"But…"

"I'll be fine! You aren't the only one who's saved the world." he ran towards the creatures. Then ripped off the mask tossing it high into the air, "Claire, the mask." He yelled.

Claire held out her casted arm, her eyes flashed purple and pulled the glamor mask into her grasp.

She pushed at the other teens. "Let's go, he'll be fine. Now you have to get these two out of here." and they ran for the truck.

"What was that? What is that? What was Jim?" Sidney spouted off, about the Crawlers, the mask and Jim turning into a troll.

They reached the truck and Max opened the front drivers side door.

"Claire, drive them somewhere safe." Max said.

"What? Max, what's going on?" Sidney asked.

"Not a chance." Claire said firmly. "I'm not letting him with those alone."

"He won't be alone. I'm going back."

"Dude, those looked really dangerous." Kirby added.

"He's my mate, I'm not leaving him."

"Wait, mate? Are you australian?" Sidney pushed.

"And he's my brother. Nether am I."

"Would one of you, TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Sidney yelled.

Max paused, listening to Steel.

"Fine, Claire. Steel said Jim told him that he's fine. And for us to get out of here. He also involved a very graphic threat."

"Wait, Steel?" Sidney said.

"FINE!" Claire grunted, balling her hands into fists at her side. "Everyone in the truck, Max, drive us to the edge of the city." Claire jumped in the back of the truck and sat down.

Max was about to jump in the front when Sidney grabbed his wrist, "Maxwell MaGrath, if you don't tell me what's going on right now…"

"Sidney!" Claire yelled, glaring at her with purple iris', "get in the truck or so help me you'll end up as Crawler chow." Sidney shut up and climbed in the back seat with Kirby. "Max, step on it. We've got company."

Claire looked out and saw a dozen Canyon Crawlers running up at them. Once Max got up to speed, Claire stood in the bed of the truck, wide stance to keep her balance and called upon her magic.

The rear window opened, and Sidney poked her head out. "What happened to Jim. What are you doing? What is all _this_?"

Claire took a deep breath and gathered her magic in her hands, now glowing with purple rings and runes around her wrists and clenched fists. "This? This is telling."

The crawlers had now caught up and were keeping a good pace, Claire was whipping her hands around sending blasts at the creatures. Nailing them and taking them out one by one.

Then one jumped, trying to attack her, swinging its tail. She created a dome like forcefield around her and the truck. Then expanded the forcefield and blew it up, sending shards of the seemingly glasslike structure into the beasts.

They came up on the edge of the city, but by that time all the Crawlers that had pursued were dead.

Max jumped out of the front of his truck, and ran to the back. "Claire, that was amazing!" he said.

"Yeah, great. Now let's get back there. He needs help." She glared, jumping out of the back and marching back in the direction they came. Past the body of a Crawler, it twitched slightly, and she sent a blast of her magic at it, stilling the beast.

"He said he had it handled." Max said. "And to keep you away."

"Yeah well, he needs my help. Your help. He can't handle an entire tribe on his own." She said, still walking away.

Sidney got out of the car, Kirby passed out from fear in the back, and marched up to Max. "Max, what is going on!?"

"This isn't a great time. I've got to go help my brother." he said, running up to catch Claire.

Once out of sight, he transformed and they flew back to where Jim was.

Sidney glanced back at Max's truck, Kirby would be fine. She took off running back to where Jim was, she wanted answers, and she was going to get them.

Jim tossed the mask high into the air, and Claire pulled it into her hands.

"For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command." he said, and his body was covered in the armor.

He ran, drew his sword and immediately went to work killing the dangerous creatures. Avoiding their tails at all costs. He didn't know what a fate worse than Creepers Sun could entail, but he didn't want to find out.

He got hit a few times with the spikes, but other then that he could keep up.

"Jim, everyone's freaking out, Claire and Max are both refusing to go." Steel said.

Jim grunted and growled his answer as he killed more and more crawlers, they turned to a dull brown before crumbling to rocks and sand.

…

He was slowing down, but there were only a few more. He just had to keep going.

He missed a step and slipped on a rock, right as one of the scorpion like tails came down on him. He held up his sword to block, but a familiar purple shield formed just above the sword, blocking the creatures attack.

He jumped back up to his feet and as soon as the shield dropped he sliced it's neck and it turned to stone. Claire was off aways, away from the Crawlers, but close enough to protect him.

He killed another, and saw Max avoiding spikes in the air while blasting the creature. Jim ran at it while it was distracted and stabbed it, then watched it crumble to bits.

Jim took a deep breath, he didn't see anymore. But with the armor on he couldn't smell if there were more further away either. Still, he didn't feel safe putting the amulet away just yet. Max glided down, landing in his full regular suit. Steel came out of his chest, looking around at the disintegrated troll bodies.

"Wow, this is… something." Steel said out loud.

Jim nodded, and glanced around again. He spotted something moving out of the corner of his eye, it was Sidney and…

"_Frackt_!" Jim yelled. Sprinting toward the girl, about to be eaten by a stray Crawler. But she was too far away. She didn't see it.

Claire was closer, she was running for it before Jim even saw Sidney. The creature was hiding behind a rock formation, and as soon as she got past that point it would pounce.

Claire ran as fast as she could, she saw Jim running for it, but he was just too far. Her feet pounded on the ground, she readied her magic, and just as she shoved Sidney to the ground and out of harm's way, the creature jumped. She threw up a shield but it's claw managed to bat her in the head, knocking her out. Her shield wounded the crawler, but now she was left defenseless.

Jim watched as Claire saved the idiot girl and throw up a shield too late. It's arm was through the shield and slammed into her head. And she fell to the ground unconscious. Jim leapt, throwing his galives into its collective eye, sending it back away from his mate before driving his sword through its skull.

Sidney sat up, staring at Jim and the crawler as it crumbled to stone. Jim pulled off his amulet and rushed to Claire's side.

Sidney decided to be brave, and thought she knew what was going on. She ran up, and stood between Jim and Claire. "Stay away, I won't let you hurt her!" She yelled.

Max rushed up, mask still on. "Sidney, back off. You don't know what's going on."

Jim snarled into Sidney's face, making her back down a bit. "It's your fault she's hurt! There's a reason I had Max take you away. And he was right, you don't deserve to know. You'd just get in the way. **Now get away from my mate**." He roared.

Max pulled Sidney away, and said to her, "Go back to the city." He pushed her in the right direction and she walked for a minute, before turning back to watch Maxsteel and Jim.

Jim crawled on his hands and feet, pawing at the ground nervously. He nuzzled her check and licked the blood off of her forehead, although it still sept into her hair, he kept licking it until the wound started to close. He paced back and forth his tail flipping around, and out of order.

He could hear her heart, and her breathing, she just wasn't waking up. He pushed his nose to her cheek, and took a deep smell of her warm breath. A growl settled in his chest.

He was aware of Max's presence, as well a Steel's. She wasn't poisoned, he would be able to smell it. And she only got hit in the head. So she probably just got knocked out.

"Jim…" Max said quietly.

Jim gave a whine in response.

"Is she ok?"

A few more whines, "I think so. She's just not waking up."

"Is there anything we can do?" Steel offered.

"Just wait here with me." Jim said. He slightly readjusted Claire's form so she would be comfortable and curled up next to her, in an almost dog like manner. Sharing his body heat, so she wouldn't be cold in the middle of the night.

Max sat down, and glanced over at Sidney still watching. Max had Steel go and try to convince her to leave. Eventually she did.

Steel flew back over, "She feels bad, she knows it was her fault. She just didn't realize that you were Jim."

"No, I guess she wouldn't." Jim said quietly, he curled his tail around Claire's arm.

The steelsuit vanished and the brothers fell asleep after an hour or so.

Jim actually told Max to move over to where he was so he won't be cold either. Jim didn't feel cold or heat as sensitively as he used to, but he gave off more heat then the average troll or human.

Subtly, Max had scooted closer to Jim. And Jim just pulled him to his side. His head lay next to Claire's shoulder, and Max's back was against his. Steel fell asleep on Jim's head. Jim's subconscious had him purring after a while.

Finally, around three in the morning. Claire stirred, she didn't dare sit up though. Not after getting hit in the head that hard. She turned her head, and saw Jim his big blue eyes staring at her. And he sighed in relief.

"I'm really glad you're ok." He whispered.

"How long have we been out?" she asked.

Jim glanced at the moon. "About two hours. Max was exhausted from lack of sleep. And Steel made himself at home in my horns." He looked up at the sleeping robot.

Max stirred awake. Sitting up he saw Claire. "Oh my gosh! Claire you're ok." He took a deep breath and stood up, stretching.

Jim sat up, carefully pulling Steel from his horns. He hovered away sleepily. And settled on Max's chest.

Jim slid his arms under Claire, and lifted her up. He nuzzled her, and licked at her face. She rubbed her face against his chest, and let her body melt into his warmth.

"Hey Jim. I covered up all the windows at my house so you could come and stay for a while. If you're interested." Max said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Jim nodded, "I would like that…" He glanced down at Claire.

"A house is even better than a laboratory lounge room." She smiled, still unmoving in Jim's arms.

"Lead the way bro."

They walked all the way back to Max's truck. Kirby had left some time ago, and so had Sidney. Max had Steel send them both texts to make sure they got home alright. Kirby's was affirmative, but Sidney's was just an angry face with a 'yes'.

They climbed in Max's truck and Jim replaced the mask for the ride into town and while they got to Max's house, well, apartment. They walked in and found the windows boarded up with cardboard, and covered in thick blackout curtains.

"Woah, Max. You did this?" Jim breathed, Claire at his side.

Max nodded, just as Steel flew out of his chest. "Yup, I wanted to spend some more time with you. And I know you sleep during the day, but I figured you could be up a little bit more." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"We can watch some movies, or play video games, or board games… and eat unhealthy food!" Steel listed off.

"I'll eat unhealthy food, I don't think Jim wants anymore of what he had earlier." Claire smiled.

"Yeah, that was nasty." Jim let his tongue hang from his mouth in distaste, "I'll stick with wild game, and the recycle bins."

Max let out a long yawn, "You know, Jim could probably use another nap after fighting all the Crawlers. We'll just sleep right now and then in the morning we'll do something." Claire offered.

"You know, that sounds great." Jim faked tired, "Definitely need another nap."

"Perfect. You and Claire can use my bed, and I'll sleep on the couch." Max lead them to his room and was really glad his mother had made him clean it the day before.

"Are you sure Max? We can sleep on the couch." Claire said. Even though she really wanted to sleep on a mattress for once.

"I'm sure."

"Awesome!" Claire exclaimed, and fell backward on the bed.

"Thanks Max," Jim said.

Max went into his bathroom and brushed his teeth, meanwhile, Jim crawled onto the bed after Claire had gotten under the clean sheets. He licked her cheek and whispered, "I love you, good night." and curled his body into the crook of her legs, but she was already asleep.

Max came out of his bathroom in a T-shirt and sweats and smiled at Jim. Jim opened his eyes and said, "You know, there's still room." he tilted his head to the rest of the full size bed, the two of them only covered about a third of the mattress.

"Isn't that a bit weird?" Max asked.

Jim lifted his head off his arm and shook his head. "You're apart of my pack, so I don't think that it's weird."

"Alright, let me just get another blanket." Max left the room and came back a bit later, Steel following. Max had a blanket and pillow in hand, he set them on the bed before sliding under the covering.

Jim laughed quietly, "You're going to fall off the bed if you're that far away." he whispered.

"It's just a bit… close."

"Max just thinks you're going to eat him." Steel said with mirth.

"I do not!" Max whisper yelled.

"You're just being chicken, you're too manly to share a bed with your brother." Steel said.

"Shut it bucket head." Max said, batting Steel away. He settled his head on his pillow, his back to Jim.

The bed shifted, and Jim he pulled the bed comforter toward him and Max came with it. He made himself a bit of a pillow from the blanket and rested his head on it, smiling at Max, who had rolled over to stare suspiciously at Jim.

"I could have actually dragged you." Jim smiled. Steel laughed from behind Max. "and you're not that much closer."

"And you'd like me _closer_?" Max said.

"Yeah, like…" Jim pulled the comforter again, pulling Max within a foot of Jim. "About here, or more."

"Whatever floats your boat, you weird troll." Max smiled.

"Thanks, you weird alien."Jim said.

"Would you two stop arguing and go to sleep." Claire moaned.

"Of course, _tain fira._" Jim said.

"Practice Trollish in the morning, we sleep now. Goodnight, _my mate_." Claire smiled and scooted closer to Jim, who rested his head on her leg, and Max rolled over and apprehensively scooted back till his back was against Jim's.

Jim was a bit shocked at this, but he was glad for it, he settled a loud purr, his tail curled and relaxed behind Max as they drifted to sleep.

As far as Molly knew, she was going to go into Max's bedroom to wake him up for lunch. She knew he had been out late with Jim. And she knew that Max had come back the night before.

What she didn't know, or expect, was to go into Max's bedroom to find Max, curled up next to the blue half troll, who was curled up next to Claire. And Steel resting on Jim's horns, asleep as well. Jim's tail was wrapped around Max's arm and owner of said tail was grinning up at her and purring, trying his hardest not to burst out laughing, his blue eyes, the same Max and their father had, sparkled with joy.

Molly could only stare, mouth agape and wide eyed.

"This isn't as weird as it looks." Jim said through his purr, trying really hard not to laugh

Molly pressed her lips and nodded, "Umm, lunch is ready." She said before quickly backing out of the room and shutting the door.

Jim couldn't hold his laugh anymore, he let it out quietly though.

He slid Steel off his head and onto the bed and unwound his tail from Max, then crawled around to Claire's head, nudging her with his nose. Licking her face, and purring loudly. She finally stired, "can't we sleep a bit longer, it's like midday, and that's like midnight." she sighed.

"I know, but Max's mom has lunch." he purred in her ear.

"Home cooked food, I'm up." She said, stretching from her spot.

Jim crawled over to Max, nudging his head and nuzzling his shoulder, "C'mon man, this is the time you're supposed to be awake."

Max moaned and buried his face in his pillow. Steel drowsily floated up next to Jim.

"He's impossible to get up." Steel said.

"Well, I can try." Jim pushed Max's head again, and started whining. A sound that in the mornings, Claire had told him, was worse than an alarm clock without a snooze or off button. Max rolled over and batted Jim's face till he stopped.

Max rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

Jim gave a relaxed snarl, and buried his head in the bed behind Max, and used his horns to shove him completely off the bed.

Max gave a yelp, then there was a thump, and, "Jim! Owch!"

"Should have gotten up when I started nudging." Jim said, stretching out like a dog. Before crawling off the bed and getting to his feet. "Besides, this me basically waking up at 12 in the morning. So I don't feel bad. You got more than enough sleep." he walked over to Claire and flicked the corner of her lip with his tongue. Bending down enough to nuzzle her shoulder, and for her to reciprocate and nuzzle his cheek.

"It's noon?" Max said getting up, watching the odd display.

"It's 12:47 Max." Steel said. "I had to wake up around an hour ago to regulate your turbo energy."

"Thanks bud." Max stretched and took in a deep breath. "Wow, whatever mom's got cooking it smells good."

"And I've been smelling it since she started cooking, I can't eat any of it. It still smells good though." Jim said.

"Well, I'm starving." Claire said, walking out of Max's room leaving the door open behind her. Steel followed her out.

"Hey, Jim?" Max said.

"Yeah Max?"

"What's the thing you do with Claire, when you like, rub your face against her? You did it to me after I woke up from the first Crawler attack. I've noticed she does it back."

"It's called nuzzling, it could be the equivalent to a hug. And she's picked up on some of my trollish behaviors, and started returning them." Jim smiled. "It's my nature, and it's kinda becoming hers too." He looked at Max. Contemplating something. "But I don't really expect you to initiate anything. And if you don't want me to, I won't do it to you."

"It's not that, I'm just… curious about you."

Jim's tail flicked, and he tilted his head slightly.

"You just seem so comfortable in your… stone? I don't know, you're just so confident and smart. You know how to fight, and you're decisive… A really good role model I guess."

Jim gave a small laugh, "Max, I'm not a great role model. I broke uncle Farrus' arm. And my morals aren't that great either. But I appreciate the thought." He wandered out of his brothers room and found Claire sitting at the bar, eating a gourmet grilled ham and cheese sandwich like it was her first meal in months. Max followed him out.

Molly stared at her with worry. Steel doing the same.

"Claire, _desh manch lieo tras, dack'll janex desh're nrehn cibus_." he said in rough trollish.

"Jim, you always looked starved when you eat. I haven't had a home cooked meal in months! As much as I love rabbit, a little bit of plain home cooking… it's just going to top it." She took another bite of her sandwich. "Good job with your trollish though. But it's '_**ef desh**_ _manch lieo tras_'."

"Ef?" Jim asked.

"If. you said 'you eat like that', the correct usage is 'if you eat like that'." Claire stated.

"Dude, that sounded so cool," Max said.

"_Ey'tah desh_." Jim thanked him.

Steel flew up, "So Claire can whisper on frequencies no one else can hear, and you can speak trollish?"

"_Ma trollish kas fiora_." Claire declared slipping off the bar stool.

"She's right, her trollish is better." Jim relented.

"This is too confusing," Molly stated, her face the picture of lost.

"So I'm curious, something we never established when we met," Steel started. "Claire, the thing you did to Forge. And attacking the crawlers?"

"Oh," she smiled. "I'm a sorceress, I have natural magic abilities so I can perform magic without a spell. But more complicated spells I have to have an incantation for."

"Soon she'll be better than Merlin," Jim grinned and nuzzled the top of his mates head.

"Thanks Jim."

"That's really cool. Does everyone have natural magical abilities?" Max asked.

Claire shook her head, "no it's a rare occurrence. It was the reason I was able to use the shadow staff, and why Morgan possessed me."

"You what?!" Molly shrieked.

"My soul got trapped in another realm while an ancient which took over my body and tried to kill Jim while we were on a date."

"You say it that calmly, and they'll think you're nuts." Jim said, leaning over and kissing her cheek.

"Well, it is no use being mad about it now. I sent her to a place she'll never get out. Hopefully, she'll die in that reached realm of hers."

"Oookaay…" Max said. "So what are we up for? Movie, games?"

"Lunch, I'm hungry," Jim stated.

"Well, what can I get for you?" Molly asked.

Steel snickered off to the side.

Jim looked at Max's mother carefully. "You know what, I'm actually not that hungry. I don't need anything," he smiled.

"Well, in that case, I'm off to work. Have a good day kido." Molly grabbed her purse and keys, leaving the apartment.

"Bye mom."

After Molly left, Jim walked around the counter and found the recycle bin, tossing several soup cans in his mouth, deeming them a good lunch.

Max leaned over to Claire, "Do you ever get used to watching him eat?"

The girl nodded, "Him eating metals is way better than watching him skin an animal. That first time… gleh," Claire stuck her tongue out and made a face.

Jim chuckled and walked back around the counter to nuzzle Claire. "She threw up on me the first time she saw me skin something."

"It wasn't a pretty night," she grimaced.

"Your food choice is rather strange," Steel pointed out.

"I mean, it's not really _choice_," Jim said. "I eat based off of what a troll relative my age would, to make sure that I'm 'growing properly'. Or at least that's what Blinkey says."

"That and instinct," Claire added.

"Is everything you do based off of instinct?" Steel questioned.

Jim contemplated for a moment, pulling on his upper lip with his tusk. Slowly he nodded. "When I woke up after I'd _transformed_ everything was super disorienting. I could barely handle what I was feeling, I did my best to act normal. But soon I was just able to do incredible feats, without really trying. And after I got the armor off, everything was intensified, the amount of _raw power_ I had. The impulses running through my head, it was nuts."

"It took me a while to get used to everything he was doing, and asking to do. Like kissing me, cleaning me, nuzzling was probably the easiest to adapt to. The tail was weird at first, but that's probably my favorite."

Claire laid back on the barstool, and Jim caught her without a second thought. Wrapping her up in his tail. Jim nuzzled her nose before setting her upright and standing close behind her so she could lean on him.

"Awe, you two are so cute." Steel said.

"I just wish Sid and I could get to that point. After what happened last night," Max sighed and shook his head.

"I'm sorry about the Crawlers. I really was making sure we were staying out of their territory," Jim snarled.

Claire turned around, Jim's tail sliding to her arm. "It's not your fault, remember what Strickler said. They're attacking because they've been found out," she said pointedly.

"Which means we need to go hunting while we're here," Jim added.

"I'm wasn't able to kill any, but I was able to distract them while you delt the hard blows, so I can help." Max said.

Jim shook his head hard, narrowing his eyes at Max. "No, I don't want you near those things."

"Uh, Max…" Steel said. He flew between the brothers, trying to get Max's attention.

Max pushed him out of the way. "Not now Steel. I know you said you'd be worse than a satellite parent, but really Jim? I'm a hero, too. I want to help you and Claire out."

"Max really, this is important." Steel stressed.

"Max, I can't stop you. I know that. But I'm saying I really don't want you near those things. You don't have experience fighting trolls and it's a lot different than what you're used to."

"MAX," Steel shouted.

"In a minute!" He turned back to Jim. "How would you know what I'm used to fighting?"

"I don't know what you're used to fighting, but I do know that fighting trolls is like nothing else. I just can't see you get hurt," Jim's eyes were soft, and a small whine was audible.

Claire leaned against him. Steel finally lost it and screamed.

"Max, we have a huge problem! Would you just listen to me?!"

The humanoids' attentions were caught.

"What is it Steel?" Claire asked.

"Is it Extroyer? Toxon?" Max had Steel in his hands and was shaking him.

Steel yelped and turbo zapped Max, making him let go. "No, it's worse."

"What is it then?" Max panicked.

"Sidney is almost outside the door," The robot said calmly and pointed at the door.

All eyes widened and turned to the front door. And a red faced, furious, blonde walked through the door demanding answers, then froze.

* * *

REVIEW! please ._.


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